§ Mr. EvennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 22 April,Official Report, column 592, whether he has any plans to allow persons applying for passports to have the option of either an old-style British passport or a new-style European Community format passport; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RentonNo. Retention of the old form of passport after computerisation of the United Kingdom passport offices would lead to confusion, inefficiency and additional expense. The public would lose the advantages of a fully computerised passport-issuing service and of having a pssport which is machine-readable.