Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have applied for passports using the (a) fast track and (b) premium service in the last month; and how many recent passport applications will receive compensation from her Department.
Answered by James Brokenshire
In June 2014, (a) 59, 692 people applied and paid for fast track and (b) 31,
289 applied for premium service. Her Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) only
normally offer compensation for financial loss as a result of delays in their guaranteed
(Fast Track and Premium) services. HMPO does not have an estimate of how much
compensation may be paid this year in line with their policy. As the Home
Secretary announced on 12 June 2014, customers who need to travel within 7 days and who
have waited more than the three weeks service standard for a straightforward application to
be processed through no fault of their own, are fast-tracked free of charge.
To 15 July, HMPO has issued 13, 461 passports as a result of this change of
policy.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who cancelled holidays in 2014 due to delays in passport applications.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty's Passport Office do not collect this data.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much HM Passport Office has paid in compensation for delays in customers receiving passports in each year since 2004.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty's Passport Office began recording data on complaints and compensation paid by various categories in 2005 so data is not held relating to 2004. Compensation paid to
passport applicants relating to complaints concerning application processing
delays amounted to:
2005 | £13,064 |
2006 | £18,684 |
2007 | £1,888 |
2008 | £2,090 |
2009 | £1,504 |
2010 | £11,978 |
2011 | £933 |
2012 | £2,999 |
2013 | £1,445 |
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the savings generated by closing passport offices in the last five years; and what estimate she has made of the total cost of (a) cancelled and (b) altered flights due to delayed passport applications in 2014.
Answered by James Brokenshire
No passport offices have been closed in the last five years.
Restructuring of passport operations between 2010 and 2012 entailed the closure
of some interview offices and relocation of the Newport passport office. These
changes realised annual savings of approximately £7.2 million per year.
We do not collect data on the costs of cancelled and altered flights
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of changes in the number of staff in the Glasgow Passport Office since 2008 on the speed of the processing of applications for passports by that office.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty's Passport Office does not consider that changes in its office in
Glasgow have had any impact on the speed of processing applications for passports.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account her Department took of the timing of school holidays in Scotland in formulating plans to deal with passport application delays.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Each year Her Majesty's Passport Office plans its capacity, taking into account
the likely level of demand during specific periods, including the run-up to school
holidays.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Brent Central of 31 March 2014, Official Report, column 411W on asylum, what the (a) gender and (b) age of each applicant represented in the table in Scotland was; and whether each such applicant had (i) family and (ii) dependants in Scotland.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Data specific to part a) of your request can be found in the following table.
Region/Country | Band | Female | Male | All |
Scotland | Less than 2 years | 64 | 133 | 197 |
Scotland | More than 2 years | 30 | 35 | 65 |
Scotland | More than 4 years | 22 | 51 | 73 |
Scotland | More than 6 years | 2 | 12 | 14 |
Scotland | All | 121 | 231 | 349 |
We are unable to provide data for part b) of your request for reasons of data
protection.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, at what gestation stage each pregnant women in Scotland granted section 4 support under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 received the decision to grant that support.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is not routinely collected and could only be provided
by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate
cost.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many pregnant woman in Scotland were denied section 4 support under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 for reasons that included an assessment that they were fit to travel; and what the gestation stage of each such woman was when that decision was made in each of the five years to 2013-14.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is not routinely collected and could only be provided
by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate
cost.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many pregnant women in Scotland were granted section 4 support under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 for reasons including that they were deemed unfit to travel in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is not routinely collected and could only be provided
by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate
cost.