Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of the additional cost to her Department of processing fresh applications to replace lost Biometric Resident Permit cards.

The holder of a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) is legally required, under regulation 18(b) of the Immigration (Biometric Registration) Regulations 2008, to notify the Secretary of State if they know or suspect their document has been lost or stolen.

Where the Secretary of State decides to cancel a BRP following a report of its loss or theft, the holder is required to apply to replace their card.

The cost of providing a replacement BRP that has been lost or stolen (currently £56 plus a biometric enrolment fee of £19.20) is set at a level that recovers the estimated cost of both the process and the card for the Home Office and does not place any additional financial burden on the department.