Separate details of all foreign visits are not held centrally within the Identity and Passport Service. However within the last 12 months the total cost of foreign trips can be broken down as follows:
£ Cost of travel 21,475 Expenses 4,918 Hotels 8,446 Total 34,839
The Government have indicated in Parliament that they anticipate that changes to information on a person's record on the national identity register that would not require a change of card (e.g. address) would not incur a fee.
With regard to other changes of information that do involve a change of card, a schedule of fees has not yet been decided and will depend on the outcome of procurement processes related to the national identity scheme. Fees will be set out in regulations under section 35 of the Identity Cards Act 2006. It is likely that a charge will be made to replace lost and stolen cards, as is the case with passports.
The Government have indicated in Parliament that they anticipate that changes to information on a person's record on the National Identity Register that would not require a change of card (e.g. address) would not incur a fee. It is likely that changes to PINs et cetera would also fall into this category.
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 4 December 2006, Official Report, column 147W.
Since 1997, the Identity and Passport Service (formerly the United Kingdom Passport Service) has introduced two new passport designs. The first, introduced in 1998, contained 27 pages that were useable for visas and endorsements. This year we introduced the e-passport which has 25 useable pages. The number of pages has been reduced because of the need to improve the clarity of the ‘Notes’ to assist the visually impaired plus the requirement to cater for additional languages following the expansion of the European Union and the decision to include the Welsh and Scottish Gaelic languages.
The number of jumbo 48-page passports issued in each of the last five years are as follows:
Number 2002 32,609 2003 37,635 2004 45,031 2005 50,540 2006 136,666 1 The figures for 2006 are until the end of September 2006.
It is not possible to provide specific information to this level of detail, however I can confirm that the breakdown of standard and jumbo passports over the last five years is as follows:
Standard Jumbo 2002 4,944,941 32,609 2003 5,441,661 37,635 2004 6,030,404 45,031 2005 6,691,048 50,540 20061 5,984,842 36,666 1The figures for 2006 are until the end of September 2006
In addition the total number of staff employed at peak period for each of the last five years is as follows:
Staff 2002 2,825 2003 2,890 2004 3,303 2005 3,739 20061 3,850 1The figures for 2006 are until the end of September 2006.)
Provision of the jumbo 48-page passport was withdrawn on 18 September 2006 and at present only 32-page biometric passports are available. The 48-page book was withdrawn so that the Identity and Passport Service could safely move from digital to biometric passports and meet the US visa waiver deadline of 26 October for full production of 32-page biometric books. A date has yet to be set as to when the 48-page passport may be reintroduced; this will potentially be spring 2007.
The number of passport applications received by the Identity and Passport Service (formerly UKPS) in each of the last five calendar years are as follows:
Number 2001 5,692,000 2002 5,570,000 2003 5,635,000 2004 6,134,000 2005 6,539,000