Passports
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Photo of John Hemming

John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley, Liberal Democrat)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for passports have been rejected when received by post since the new categories of rejection came into operation, broken down by (a) category and (b) passport office.

Photo of Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leigh, Labour)

Since the implementation by the UK Passport Service (UKPS) of new photo standards from 12 September 2005, 597,863 passport applications have been received. For a variety of reasons, UKPS has had to contact the applicant for further information on 119,339 applications. Of these queries, 81,927 applications, that is, 13.7 per cent. of total intake have required new photographs to be submitted.

A breakdown of this information by passport office is shown in the table.

The three main categories of photograph rejection are incorrect paper quality, facial expression and eyes obscured. The UKPS are currently unable to provide a breakdown of these categories by office. The UKPS will shortly be issuing revised guidance to its customers clarifying how the standards should be met to ensure fuller compliance.

Number
Passport application intake 597,863
Queries
London 1,225
Liverpool 21,291
Peterborough 17,729
Newport 22,568
Glasgow 9,679
Belfast 8,882
Durham 37,965
Total queries 119,339
Total photo rejections 81,927
Photo queries as percentage of intake 13.7%

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