HC Deb 23 June 1988 vol 135 cc672-4W
38. Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current waiting time for the issue of passports from the Glasgow office; what was the figure one year ago; and if he has any proposals for improvement.

Mr. Renton

The current time for straightforward non-urgent applications at the Glasgow passport office is 39 working days, six days fewer than at this time last year. Urgent applications are given priority. As I announced on 31 March, at column679, in answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry), a number of special measures to reduce delays at United Kingdom passport offices in advance of computerisation of the passport-issuing system, which is due to begin at Glasgow from this July. In the meantime, arrangements are in hand to transfer blocks of postal applications from Glasgow to Liverpool, where delays are shorter.

40. Mr. Andy Stewart

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the proposed introduction of machine-readable passports will affect passport applicants; and if he will make a statement.

44. Mr. Page

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on how the proposed introduction of machine-readable passports will affect applicants for passports.

57. Mr. Carrington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the proposed machine-readable passports will affect applicants for passports; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Renton

The computerised production of United Kingdom passports in machine-readable form should lead to a faster service in the issuing of passports and reduce delays at overseas frontier controls. Family passports, which include the particulars of a wife or husband, cannot be issued in machine-readable form and are being discontinued, although it will remain possible to include children.

46. Mr. Franks

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the number of employees at the passport office and the number of passports issued in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1987.

Mr. Renton

The information, covering the six United Kingdom passport offices, is as follows:

Year Number of passports issued Highest number of staff in post in any month1
Permanent staff Casual staff
1979 1,754,506 901 182
1981 1,748,118 996 119
1983 1,960,687 949 167
1985 1,794,111 938 111
1987 2,141,330 961 232
1 Includes headquarters staff.

61. Mr. Evennett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current average time currently taken by the passport office in Petty France to process a passport renewal.

Mr. Renton

The current times for straightforward non-urgent postal applications at London and other passport offices are shown in the table. Urgent applications are given priority.

Passport office 1Delay
London 61
Glasgow 39
Peterborough 35
Newport 22
Liverpool 14
Belfast2 3
1 Working days
2 The Belfast Office is by far the smallest

Applicants making inquiries to a passport office about the progress of their application should always quote the date on which it was submitted, their full name and date of birth as this is necessary to locate the relevant papers.