Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many British passports have been issued to previously non-British citizens in each of the last 10 years.

Records are not held centrally in the formats requested. A passport may be subject to confiscation by police and authorised persons under statutory provisions in relation the investigation of crime or in connection with immigration matters. That would be an operational decision for the agency concerned and figures are not collated centrally. People may be refused a British passport or may have their existing passport withdrawn on a number of grounds, including that their grant or continued enjoyment of a passport is contrary to the public interest. The number of passports revoked by HMPO in each of the last five years is as follows:

2009: 512

2010: 646

2011: 662

2012: 1,521

2013: 1,174