Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Permanent Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office
THEFT OF
EMERGENCY PASSPORTS
I am writing to inform you of the recent theft
of British emergency passports in the Bahamas and Montenegro,
set out what we have done to minimise the attendant risks, and
what we are doing to minimise the chances of similar incidents
happening again.
EMERGENCY PASSPORTS
Blank emergency passports present a lower risk
than full passports. They are usually issued when someone has
lost their standard British passport, or had it stolen, and there
is insufficient time to provide a full replacement. It is one-page
travel document valid for a single journey and a specific period
of time, usually only slightly greater than the minimum period
required for completing the journey. A separate consular stamp
is also necessary to validate these documents. They are due to
be replaced next year by a more secure Emergency Travel Document
as part of the modernisation of our passport operation.
THE BAHAMAS
INCIDENT
On 16 October intruders broke into the home
of our Consular Assistant in Nassau, a locally employed member
of staff responsible for providing consular services after the
High Commission closed in 2005. A safe, an office laptop and mobile
phone provided by the High Commission in Kingston (who manage
the position), and some personal items were stolen. Our Consular
Assistant has confirmed that 36 emergency passports were in the
safe and that their serial numbers were held on the stolen laptop;
but that the consular stamps were not stolen. The Bahamian Police
are investigating the incident and have taken a statement from
both the Consular Assistant and her husband, who had initially
reported the theft. There is no evidence that the thieves were
after these emergency passports.
Given time differences, the FCO notified the
Nationality Documentary Fraud Unit and the Identity and Passport
Service in the Home Office of the theft on the following day and
provided the serial numbers so that they could put them on the
warning list for UK border points. We also alerted the Bahamian
authorities, British Airways in Nassau (who have the only scheduled
flights to the UK) and the relevant charter companies.
The arrangements for securing the emergency
passports in the Consular Assistant's private residence were agreed
by the FCO when the High Commission in Nassau closed in 2005.
MONTENEGRO
On 21 October our Embassy in Montenegro reported
that they had a single emergency passport stolen the previous
day. We are still clarifying the circumstances, but the document
appears to have been stolen from the Embassy in the course of
the working day. As with the Bahamas case we have reported the
loss to the relevant authorities.
PREVENTING FUTURE
LOSSES
While we are confident that the risks of misuse
have been minimised in these cases, we need to also minimise the
risk of a similar situation occurring again. We are considering
urgently the arrangements for holding emergency passports in Nassau,
including the possibility that we no longer issue them there in
future: this would make it much harder for us to help British
tourists and others who lose their passports on the island. In
Montenegro, we will review procedures once the full facts have
been established.
We are also reviewing our security arrangements
for emergency passports, particularly those held outside official
and secure FCO premises, as part of the introduction of the new
Emergency Travel Documents which will replace emergency and temporary
passports in mid-2009. We have also initiated a full stock take
of blank emergency passports, including those held by Honorary
Consuls and Consular Assistants. The implementation of the Whitehead
Review following the theft of blank full validity passports in
Manchester last July should also help improve our procedures for
delivering passports securely, including emergency passports.
and for controlling stocks.
Providing emergency travel documents effectively
to British nationals in need overseas requires a widespread network
of officials who can issue them. We have increasingly relied on
Honorary Consuls and locally-employed Consular Assistants to provide
this service. We will need to consider whether we can continue
to take this approach in the light of our internal audit. We want
to be able to offer as extensive a service as possible; but of
course, only if we can do so securely.
Sir Peter Ricketts
24 October 2008
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