§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have considered, or will consider the merits of giving United Kingdom passport holders a number to be retained for use on replacement passports when the previous passport has been cancelled and using some variation of that same number for replacement passports when the previous passport has been reported lost or stolen or otherwise is not available for cancellation.
§ Baroness BlatchNo. For security reasons, blank passports are numbered by the printers before despatch to the Passport Offices of the United Kingdom Passport Agency, and the British Consulates and British High Commissions abroad.
§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the maximum length of time which elapses between the registration of the death of a United Kingdom passport holder and the cancellation of his or her passport.
§ Baroness BlatchThere is no time limit imposed upon the person submitting the passport for cancellation. As stated in the notes inside passports, the passport of a deceased person should be submitted for cancellation to the nearest British passport issuing authority.
§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many United Kingdom passports were reported lost or stolen in each of the last 10 years and how many of those were subsequently recovered.
§ Baroness BlatchPrecise figures for the number of United Kingdom passports lost or stolen are not kept but it is estimated that about 80,000 are reported each year, of which about 20,000 are in foreign countries. A significant number of these passports are expired while a smaller percentage will subsequently be found having been originally misplaced.
Passport issuing within the United Kingdom is now computerised and the system allows the recording of machine readable passports that have been reported lost, stolen or found. Arrangements are being considered which would provide the United Kingdom Passport Agency with statistics from the computerised records to monitor the problem.