Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications are refused each year due to failing to meet the counter-signatory eligibility criteria.

A passport application will not be refused on the basis of an unacceptable countersignatory or digital referee. If the person helping to confirm the applicant’s identity is not accepted, the customer will be asked to provide a new, acceptable countersignatory or digital referee.

The number of countersignatories or digital referees who have not been accepted is not held in a reportable format and could therefore only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.