HC Deb 15 July 1999 vol 335 cc312-4W
Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the summary of the Passport Agency business review undertaken in 1997; and if he will make a statement. [90682]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

Yes. I have placed a summary of the business case for Private Sector Involvement in the Issue of the British Passport, produced by the United Kingdom Passport Agency in July 1997, in the Library.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the options considered by his Department and the Passport Agency for dealing with the current problems at the Agency; and if he will make a statement. [90687]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

It would not be appropriate to list all of the options considered for dealing with the current problems at the Passport Agency. This is a matter of internal discussion between myself and Agency officials. The options that have been implemented are the prioritisation of applications based on travel dates; 400 additional staff have been recruited; the Agency is working extended hours; examination processes have been streamlined and straightforward renewal applications are being exceptionally extended by passport offices and main post offices; adverts have been placed in the national and regional media advising the general public awaiting or applying for a passport what to do; and a special telephone helpline for inquiries has been set up.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the results obtained from the pilot tests on the new information technology systems introduced by the Passport Agency at the Liverpool and Newport offices; and if he will make a statement. [90685]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

The new Passport Application Support System (PASS) is owned, managed and controlled by Siemens Business Services (SBS) under a public-private partnership agreement. The tests carried out at the time of the pilot implementations in Liverpool and Newport were designed and documented by SBS. Agency staff reviewed, agreed and took part in test programmes, but ownership of test documentation rests with SBS, who are free to publish the documentation at their own commercial discretion. The Passport Agency is satisfied with the design and resilience of the PASS Information Technology system, although it will continue with SBS to seek improvement. The Agency will also seek to develop better working arrangements with SBS in passport offices to ensure SBS can deliver an effective operational service.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what date his Department made the decision to permit the recruitment of 300 extra staff for the Passport Agency; on what date recruitment of new staff began; and how many of those staff have been fully trained; how many of the additional 100 new staff have been recruited and trained; and if he will make a statement. [90589]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

The decision to recruit 300 more staff was taken in late March. Waiting lists from previous campaigns were used to appoint new staff quickly and further recruitment began on 12 April. The 300 staff have been trained to undertake the required duties. Of the further 100 staff, 90 are now in place and have received full training in the required duties. The remainder are due to start by 12 July.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the results of the consultation with the Passport Agency user group about the introduction of separate child passports; and if he will make a statement. [90683]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

Yes. I have placed copies of the individual responses to the Passport Agency's consultation exercise on separate passports for children in the Library. Members of the Consultative Panel of Passport Users, who comprise of national representatives of the travel trade, consumer groups and other relevant organisations including Re-unite—the National Council for Abducted Children—were consulted on the question of separate passports for children. The broad conclusion of the Panel was that overall security would be improved by the introduction of the requirement for separate passports, and the change would be a positive one.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the contractual arrangements for the imposition of penalties on the contractors responsible for the introduction of new information technology systems at the Passport Agency; and if he will make a statement. [90590]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

Under the Passport Agency's contracts with Siemens Business Services (SBS) and Security Printing and Systems (SP&S) formerly The Stationery Office Ltd., service credits are available in relation to timeliness of delivery of data to the United Kingdom Passport Agency (UKPA); accuracy of data when delivered to the UKPA; transmission of data to printers; timeliness in printing the passport; system availability; and accuracy of the manufactured product.

Service Credits of £66,951 have so far been levied on SBS for system availability (£47,232) and accuracy of data passed to the Agency (£19,696). Service credits of £4,489 have been levied on SP&S for accuracy of the manufactured product.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish his Department's papers relating to the decision to require a separate children's passport from October 1998; and if he will make a statement. [90684]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

It would not be appropriate to publish the policy advice that officials have provided to Ministers. The reasons for introducing the requirement for separate passports for children were announced to the House in my reply to my hon. Friend, the Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner), 7 April 1998,Official Report, column 173, and there has also been widespread publicity including press releases, information to travel agents, libraries and Citizen Advice Bureaus, and via electronic media, to provide the public with the background to the change. Copies of the individual responses to the Passport Agency's consultation exercise on separate passports for children have been placed in the Library.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate the Passport Agency and the Home Office have made of the cost of meeting compensation claims resulting from the problems at the Passport Agency; what assessment they have made of the amount which will have to be found from increases in charges made by the Passport Agency; and if he will make a statement. [90688]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

It is not possible at this stage in the year for the Agency to make a reliable estimate of the complete cost of compensation payments. In the 1998–99 financial year the Agency paid around £80,000 in compensation. In the first four months of this financial year the Agency has paid around £37,000. In terms of the impact on the passport fee, if the Agency's total compensation bill in 1999–2000 is £100,000, this would represent 2p of the £21 passport fee. There is, therefore, no reason why any increase in passport fee should result from the level of compensation.