asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why it takes seven to 10 days for a passport to be renewed, except in extremely urgent cases; to what extent this time lag could he overcome by a concerted effort on the part of the staffs of the passport offices; and whether, in order to economise in paper and labour, he will issue instructions that all former passports shall be renewed, provided they contain empty pages, instead of insisting that those more than 10 years' old must be replaced by new ones.
Where applications for a new passport or replacement of an old passport are received through a Local Office or Resettlement Advice Office of the Ministry of Labour, the average time taken to issue and post the new passport is three to four days from the date of receipt in the Passport Office. The average time in the case of applications received in the Passport Office direct by post is somewhat longer, but constant effort is made to reduce the period to a minimum. The average time taken in dealing with applications lodged personally at the Passport Office is three days. It must, of course, be understood that these periods are exceeded when it is necessary to call for any documents in proof of statements made in the passport application. Application for the renewal of an existing passport less than ten years old takes on the average two to four days to deal with and despatch. The Meeting of Experts on Passport and Frontier Formalities held at Geneva in April, 1947, to prepare for a World Conference on Passports and Frontier Formalities recommended that the total validity of a passport should not exceed ten years. In view of that recommendation which corresponds to British practice for many years I am not prepared to authorise the renewal of passports for more than ten years from the date of issue.