To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the status of the UK Passport Agency's framework document following the decision to confirm the agency's status as an executive agency of the Home Office for a further period. [38419]

Following a "prior options" review, an announcement was made to Parliament in November 1994 that Ministers had agreed that the Passport Agency should retain its status as an executive agency for another five years. The agency's framework document has been revised and I am pleased to say that copies of the revised document have now been placed in the Library.