§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 190W how many of the estimated 1 million passports issued annually are renewals of existing passports; and how many are first-time passports.
§ Mr. EnnalsApproximately 50 per cent. of passports issued are in replacement of previous ones.
§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Passport Office checks with the Registrar-General's Office to verify if new applicants for passports are dead or alive.
§ Mr. EnnalsNo. It would be quite impracticable with the time and resources at its disposal for the Passport Office to check each application with the several central records of deaths.
§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what investigations are, under the present arrangements, undertaken by the Passport Office to check on whether applicants for new passports are registered as deceased.
§ Mr. EnnalsNo such check is made. The Passport Office relies upon the countersignature of a professional person on the application form and one photograph as testimony that the facts on the form and the likeness of the photograph relate to the applicant.
§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will seek to establish how many passports have been issued in recent years in the names of people after their registered death.
§ Mr. EnnalsWe could not justify the expense and labour of causing each of over a million passport applications handled annually to be checked against the several registers of deaths. Three such cases have come to notice in the past 12 months.
§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what changes he is proposing in the existing procedures for the issue of passports.
§ Mr. EnnalsWe are currently considering what changes ate both practicable and desirable.