Recession depresses passport demand

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As a result of the drop-off in demand, the Identity and Passport Service has cut its staffing by 10% by loaning workers to busy JobCentres, said Home Office permanent secretary Sir David Normington.

The details were revealed in a report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on the Home Office's financial management, which hailed "significant improvements" since a critical report by the same committee three years ago.

The spending watchdog said that the Home Office had "come a long way" since 2006, when its basic financial systems were "in disarray". The department was now being held up by the Cabinet Office as "a model of good progress in the civil service".

But the report noted difficulties in accurately forecasting demand for services like passports, and warned the Home Office that where requirements for extra spending arise, Parliament must be informed promptly.

Informing MPs in retrospect of possible new liabilities that have been entered into was "unacceptable and tantamount to flouting parliamentary procedure", warned the report.

Some 6.2 million UK passports were issued in 2006/07, but this figure reduced to 5.9 million in 2007/08 and 5.23 million in 2008/09. The cost of an adult passport has increased over the period from £66 in 2006 to £72 in 2007 and £77.50 now.

Giving evidence to the committee earlier this year before the latest price rise, Sir David said: "What has been happening in the last two years is that demand for passports has been falling and we think that is because as the recession has come on people are delaying renewing their passports.

"It is £72 for a passport. As air travel has got cheaper then £72 is a lot more at a particular point when you may be going on your holidays, it is quite a sizeable sum.

"There are signs that people are either not renewing until the point that they go on their holiday or in the recession leaving it as late as possible and in recent times that has affected our forecasting."