Burstow demands inquiry into lost passport fiasco

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 25th May 2003

Liberal Democrat front bench spokesman Paul Burstow MP, today revealed shocking new figures showing that over 11,500 passports in the last four years have been lost by the post office after being posted back to customers from the Passport Service.

The figures, revealed in a Parliamentary answer to Mr Burstow, show that between 1999 and 2002, 11,733 passports were reported missing after being returned to customers by the Passport Agency. Between 2001 and 2002 the number that were 'lost' in the post increased by 17%.

Mr Burstow said:

"Either there is incompetence on the part of Royal Mail sorting offices when they are delivering passports back to customers, or there is a blackmarket trade in stolen identities. Either way, an inquiry must be launched into why so many official documents are disappearing without a trace.

"In these times of heightened security and risk from terrorist threat, it is scandalous that so many passports could be falling into the wrong hands and potentially being used fraudulently.

"Basic preventative security measures, like registered mail, must be put in place to prevent identities falling into criminal or terrorist hands."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The figures do not include passports that have been lost while being handled by the Passport Agency or those passports that have gone astray when posted to the Agency.

15 May 2003 : Column 436W

15th May 2003

Mr Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many claims for lost Passports the Passport Agency has received in each of the last five years. (113034)

Beverley Hughes: The UK Passport Service records information on passports reported missing after being posted by the Service. The information recorded for each of the last five years is shown in the table:

Year Passports lost by Royal Mail

1998 Not Available

1999 2,359

2000 3,851

2001 2,541

2002 2,982

Total 11,733