§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why the abbreviation "Ms" appears on passport application forms; what it means; and for what term it is an abbreviation.
§ Mr. RifkindSome women take the view that the prefixes "Miss" and "Mrs", which normally relate to a woman's marital status, are discriminatory since a man is described as "Mr" irrespective of whether or not he has been married. They prefer to be described as "Ms"—pronounced miz—and it was agreed by Ministers in 1974 that this description could, on request, be used in passports.