§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will investigate the case, details of which have been submitted to him, of the wife of a medical graduate of London University detained during the past three years in Gibraltar, whose permit to join her husband has been invalidated by the requirements of the Passport Office; and, in view of similar complaints made by this officer's colleagues, if he will rectify the position.
Mr. McNeilIn the case to which the hon. Member refers, an application for a passport was received from the lady in question by the Branch Passport Office at Liverpool on 9th May. The application was accompanied by the lady's birth and marriage certificates and the child's birth certificate. As the applicant had not previously held a British passport, she was asked, on 22nd May, to produce her husband's birth certificate in order to establish the British nationality of the applicant and her child. She was, at the same time, asked to produce evidence of the consent of her husband to the inclusion of the child's name in the passport. It is a normal precaution of the Passport authorities in the case of women proceeding abroad with minor children to ensure the assent of the father to the removal of the child from the country.