Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether lease contracts on buildings currently housing HM Passport Office interview offices that are facing closure would allow for the proposed timeframe of office closures to be extended.

Sites which host flexible interview teams are operated by Her Majesty’s Passport Office as managed office space. Rental agreements vary, but most require one month notice.

In Blackburn, Bristol, Crawley, Leicester and Sheffield HM Passport Office holds a licence to occupy the premises until September 2018, with an opportunity to break the licence in September 2016.

A date to cease interviewing in March 2016 has been set to enable staff to work with the Home Office career transition service and focus on finding alternative employment prior to the offices being decommissioned.