§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will provide the number of British passports reported lost or stolen, respectively, in each of the last five years. [HL2324]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin)The United Kingdom (UKPS) Passport Service records information on passports reported lost, stolen or unavailable. In collating these figures no distinction is made between these categories. The information UKPS has recorded for the past five years is shown below:
1998 31,497 1999 62,364 2000 114,624 2001 148,230 2002 166,358 UKPS is introducing a comprehensive system for recording and disseminating information on lost, stolen and recovered passports. This system is due to go live in December of this year. It will enable the timely and accurate collection and dissemination of information on lost, stolen and recovered passports in the United Kingdom and in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) posts abroad. This information will improve our fraud prevention and 156WA detection capability and improve aspects of our customer service. The information held on this system will also be made available to the United Kingdom Immigration Service.
§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps are taken by the Registrar General routinely to notify the Passport Agency of deaths; how many current British passports are in circulation; and how many have been returned to the authorities on the death of the holder in each of the past five years. [HL2325]
§ Lord FilkinThe United Kingdom Passport Service does not routinely receive notification of deaths from the Registrar General. The United Kingdom Passport Service has been seeking to establish arrangements to receive routine notification of deaths from government departments which hold such data. Discussions on this matter are on-going.
It is estimated that there are 47 million valid British passports, equivalent to 80 per cent of the population. Every passport contains a reminder that it should be returned for cancellation on the death of the holder. The United Kingdom Passport Service has not routinely collated figures relating to the number of passports returned for cancellation on the death of the holder. Figures for passports cancelled in such circumstances are not therefore available for each of the past five years. However, figures are available for the period October 2000 to November 2001 and for the 2002 calendar year. These figures are shown below:
October 2000–November 2001 33,786 2002 41,032