Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 23 March 2015, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 25 March 2015. It was answered by James Duddridge (Conservative) on Wednesday, 25 March 2015 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Emergency Travel Documents

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much revenue his Department has generated through the processing and issuing of temporary passports overseas to British nationals who had lost or had their passports stolen whilst abroad in each of the last five years.

Answer

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issues two travel documents – Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) which allow for travel up to a maximum of five countries and Emergency Passports (EPs) which are used primarily in the event of a crisis. These travel documents are issued to British nationals who are overseas and whose passport is lost, stolen, damaged, has expired or is otherwise unavailable and who have a requirement to travel before a replacement passport is available. The total income from ETDs and EPs in the last five financial years is shown below. This cannot be accurately broken down by the reason why a travel document was issued.

Financial Year Total Income
2014-15 (as of 24 Mar 2015) £3,481,866.30
2013-14 £3,283,015.79
2012-13 £2,810,021.69
2011-12 £2,855,322.55
2010-11 £1,739,616.52

The cost of consular services is not subsidised by the UK taxpayer. The charges for services we provide, such as ETDs, are calculated to cover the full cost of the consular operation globally.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
228730
Session
2014-15
Transferred
Yes
Subjects
Emergency travel documents
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk