To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of (a) issuing and (b) producing passports in each of the last eight years has been; and what estimate has been made of the cost of (i) issuing and (ii) producing passports for each of the next eight years. (241860)

The costs of (a) issuing and (b) producing passports within IPS for the last eight financial years are as follows:

The Identity Cards Scheme cost report published in November 2008 sets out the expected costs for the delivery of the scheme as a whole, which includes both identity cards and passports. In many cases, the same application will result in the issue of both a passport and ID card. The full cost of registering individuals for passports and ID cards is included in common costs because the same technology infrastructure and business processes will be used, thus costs cannot be separated for passports only. Further details are contained within the November 2008 cost report.