To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many holders of valid UK passports were (a) resident in the UK and (b) resident abroad at the most recent date for which figures are available. (168139)

In 2006-07 6.2 million passports were issued in the UK by the Identity and Passport Service and slightly over 400,000 outside the UK by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. However, there are no records of where holders of valid British passports currently reside and records of numbers of passports issued only confirm that a person was present at the issuing location when the passport was issued and do not account for subsequent changes such as emigration or death of the passport holder.