To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which contractors have been responsible for operating the secure delivery of passports for the Identity and Passport Service since 1 January 2003; and what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) percentage of passports mislaid by such contractors each year since 2003. (111182)

Passports were delivered by First Class post in 2003, and during this year 3,593 passports were recorded as lost. This equates to 0.06 per cent. of passports produced.

Secure Mail Services commenced the Secure Delivery of passports on 9 February 2004, and losses since this contract commenced are as follows:

These losses equate to around .013 per cent. of output over this period, a reduction of 80 per cent. over the losses previously experienced.