Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passports were lost by his Department's Immigration Section in the last 12 months.

Data on lost passports in the last 12 months is not captured and consolidated across the Border, Immigration and Citizenship System. To find this information would require interrogation of individual case records and therefore could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

From November 2018, the majority of immigration applicants who apply to confirm or extend their stay in the UK, or apply for citizenship, will be managed by the Home Office’s new commercial partner Sopra Steria on behalf of UK Visas and Immigration. As part of this new service, for the first time, applicants will be able to retain their passport and supporting evidence as part of the application process