Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications of situations where HM Passport Office has lost supporting documents for first-time adult British passport applications, withdrawn these applications and asked the applicant to bear the costs of resubmitting a new application and applying for new supporting documents; and if she will make a statement.

While the loss of documents by HM Passport Office is rare, any losses are taken extremely seriously.

It is HM Passport Office's policy to reimburse any reasonable out of pocket expenses as a result of any error, which includes the replacement of lost documents. Where it has been determined that a passport application has been withdrawn in error, the customer will be invited to submit a replacement application at no further cost.