House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee The future of the Newport Passport Office Fourth Report of Session 2010–11 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 25 January 2011 HC 590 Published on 3 February 2011 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £14.50 The Welsh Affairs Committee The Welsh Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales (including relations with the National Assembly for Wales). Current membership David T.C. Davies MP (Conservative, Monmouth) (Chair) Stuart Andrew MP (Conservative, Pudsey) Guto Bebb MP (Conservative, Aberconwy) Alun Cairns MP (Conservative, Vale of Glamorgan), Geraint Davies MP (Labour, Swansea West) Jonathan Edwards MP (Plaid Cymru, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) Mrs Siân C. James MP (Labour, Swansea East) Susan Elan Jones MP (Labour, Clwyd South) Karen Lumley MP (Conservative, Redditch) Jessica Morden MP (Labour, Newport East) Owen Smith MP (Labour, Pontypridd) Mr Mark Williams MP (Liberal Democrat, Ceredigion) The following Members were members of the committee during the Parliament: Glyn Davies MP (Conservative, Montgomeryshire) Nia Griffith MP (Labour, Llanelli) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/welshcom Committee staff The current staff of the Committee is Adrian Jenner (Clerk), Anwen Rees (Inquiry Manager), Jenny Nelson (Senior Committee Assistant), Dabinder Rai (Committee Assistant), Mr Tes Stranger (Committee Support Assistant) and Laura Humble (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Welsh Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 3264; and the Committee’s email address is [email protected] The future of the Newport Passport Office 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 Background 5 2 Rationale for the Decision 6 Restructuring the Identity and Passport Service 6 Retaining a full passport service at Newport 8 3 Consultation 10 Consultation with the Secretary of State for Wales 10 Negotiations with the unions 10 Announcement of the proposed closure 11 4 The Economic Impact of the Proposed Closure 14 Job Losses 14 Economic Impact Assessment 15 Wider Implications 16 5 The Impact of the Proposed Closure on Customers 18 Welsh language service provision 19 Interview Office Network 20 6 Conclusion 21 Conclusions and recommendations 22 Formal Minutes 25 Witnesses 26 List of printed written evidence 26 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 27 The future of the Newport Passport Office 3 Summary The Newport Passport Office is one of seven regional offices and one of five Passport Application Processing Centres. Newport Passport Application Processing Centre serves the whole of Wales, Devon and Cornwall, Avon and Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire. It deals with 47,000 passport applications annually—around 10% of the national total. On 8 October 2010, the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) announced a public consultation on its proposed plan to close the Passport Office at Newport, with a loss of over 300 jobs. On 12 October, the Home Office announced that a customer service centre would be retained in Newport to service South Wales and the South West of England. A consultation process on the proposed closure began on 19 October 2010 and was subsequently extended to 18 March 2011. The piecemeal nature of the announcements suggests the lack of a co-ordinated strategy regarding the future of the IPS in Wales. The Newport Passport Office is the only passport office serving the people of Wales. The Committee is concerned that its significance to Wales and its value to the Welsh economy has not been truly appreciated by the Government. No economic impact assessment of the proposal has to date been completed on an area which has suffered long-term effects from the closures of the heavy industry on which its prosperity was once founded. It is therefore important to re-examine and re-evaluate the criteria on which the decision was based. These oversights and omissions should be addressed before the final decision is made. The Newport Passport Office is the second largest employer in the city centre. Its closure would have a significant economic impact on the city. Wales has recently suffered from the cancellation of several key strategic projects which would have brought investment and jobs to Wales. The closure of the passport application processing centre would be a further blow for the Welsh economy. The Committee is not convinced by the Government’s argument that long-term savings will be made by reducing the size of the Newport Office. The Office has been responsible for successful, innovative programmes and has a cadre of skilled and experienced staff. The rationale behind the closure is based on short-term savings without a proper examination of the long-term advantages of consolidating services in Newport. The IPS should provide a detailed appraisal of the costs and benefits of consolidation and expansion in Newport as opposed to a reduction of services there. Without the retention of the office in Newport, we doubt that the Government’s duty to provide a Welsh-language service to users can be properly discharged. The appraisal and consultation process which led to the decision in principle to close the Passport Office in Newport was unsatisfactory and the rationale for the decision is questionable. The Committee calls on the Government to ensure that the concerns raised in the report are taken into account when deciding on the future of the Newport Passport Office. The future of the Newport Passport Office 5 1 Introduction Background 1. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is an executive agency of the Home Office. It is responsible for issuing UK passports, and deals with an average of 5.5 million applications for passports each year.1 It has a network of offices based at regional and local level across the United Kingdom. 2. The Newport Passport Office is one of seven regional offices and one of five Passport Application Processing Centres—the others being Belfast, Durham, Liverpool and Peterborough. Offices at Glasgow and London provide customer counter services only. The catchment area for the Newport Passport Application Processing Centre is the whole of Wales, Devon and Cornwall, Avon and Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire. There are also 56 local interview offices throughout the United Kingdom. 3. On 8 October 2010, the IPS announced plans to hold a public consultation to “reduce the size of the organisation and ensure it is more efficient”.2 Under the proposed plans, the Passport Office at Newport would close with a loss of over 300 jobs. On 12 October, the Home Office announced that a customer service centre would be retained in Newport to service South Wales and the South West of England. 4. A statutory 90-day consultation process on the proposed closure of the Newport passport application processing centre began on 19 October, and was originally due to end on 18 January 2011. On 17 January, it was announced that the consultation period would be extended for a further two months, and close on 18 March. 5. Following the Government’s announcement, concern has been expressed in two areas: the impact on the economy of Newport and the wider region; and the level of customer service for the people of Wales, including Welsh language provision. On 14 October we announced our inquiry examining the justification for the decision by IPS to reduce its services in Newport. We received written evidence from a number of individuals and organisations and also took evidence on 10 November from regional and national representatives of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), and Councillor Matthew Evans, Leader, Newport City Council; Mr Damian Green MP, Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office, and Sarah Rapson, Chief Executive, Identity and Passport Service. 6. This Report and the evidence we publish with it, is our contribution to the Government’s consultation on the proposed reduction in size of the Newport Passport Office. 1 The IPS is also responsible for the registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales. From 1 April 2008, the IPS also took responsibility for the work of the General Register Office (GRO) for England and Wales from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). 2 “IPS announce office closure consultation”, Identity and Passport Service press release, 8 October 2010. 6 The future of the Newport Passport Office 2 Rationale for the Decision Restructuring the Identity and Passport Service 7. In written evidence, the Home Office argued for the need to restructure the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) because of excess capacity in its application processing and interview office networks. It claimed that current and planned improvements in productivity and efficiency would mean that by 2012, the IPS would have: • Excess staff capacity of around 350 full time equivalents and excess physical capacity of approximately 25% across [its] application processing estate; • Excess staff capacity of around 150 full time equivalents and 39 local offices across [its] Interview Office Network.3 8. In its submission to the Minister on 13 September 2010, the IPS commented that there were two reasons for the apparent ‘overcapacity’ in terms of staffing and estates: the cancellation of the National Identity Service (NIS) programme (that is to say the “identity card” system legislated for by Parliament at the instigation of the previous administration and repealed at the instigation of the new government); and operational improvements.