Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the legal responsibilities are under United Kingdom law of consulates of other countries for the care and protection of United Kingdom citizens’ documents which are submitted to them for visa and other purposes; whether, in cases where documents are retained by consulates for periods well beyond those which those consulates have announced to be normal and expected, United Kingdom citizens have any formal right to request or require return of their documents; and whether in cases where, after a period which clearly exceeds the normal and expected time for return, the return of documents is requested but not honoured, HM Passport Office will accept that documents have been lost for the purposes of requesting a replacement passport.

It is a matter for individual foreign diplomatic missions how they run their visa operations in the UK. The British passport remains the property of the Crown at all times and HM Passport Office (HMPO) has the right to require the return of the passport at any time.

HMPO will not consider the issue of a replacement passport if it is known that the passport is being held by a foreign diplomatic mission for the purposes of considering a visa application. It is open to a visa applicant to withdraw their application at any time and seek return of any supporting documents they have provided.