Mrs. Butlerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, why visitors' passports obtained from Ministry of Labour Offices cannot be renewed annually; and if he will revise the regulations to enable this to be done.
§ Mr. PadleyThe administrative arrangements for the issue of British visitors' passports have been made as simple and cheap as possible so that applicants may obtain them with the minimum of formality and expense. To change the system so as to allow for renewals would involve not only the introduction of additional processes but also the concurrence of all the countries with which Her Majesty's Government have entered into agreements for the acceptance of these one-year passports.
Large numbers of holders of British visitors' passports replace them, when they expire, by ordinary passports which are normally valid for five years and 445W renewable for a further five years. It is not considered that the demand for the renewal of British visitors' passports would justify the change proposed.