29 April 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to maintain a full range of passport services at the Brussels (Belgium) Embassy."
Details of Petition:
"From 31 March 2008, UK passport services in Belgium and France will be joined to create a single issuing centre, in Paris, not in Brussels. It is claimed by the Embassy that this can be processed in 10 working days of receipt at the British Consulate-General Paris. How reliable is the Belgian Post? This year some Xmas cards posted in UK before Xmas have been held in Brussels X postal centre for 6-7 weeks. UK passport applicants in Belgium will need to apply for a renewal or new passport from the British Consulate General in Paris by post or in person. All other consular services (mainly those not used by UK citizens) will continue to be provided by the British Embassy in Brussels who will also continue to issue Emergency Passports (an emergency travel document for single use to return to the UK). And no - it is not true that the staff savings will be used to send extra UK teachers to the European School system. For a full text, see the Statement from the British Embassy in Brussels 22 February 2008. Sign up here or complain to the Embassy directly OR BOTH."
Read the Government’s response
From Monday 31 March 2008, UK passport services in Belgium and France will be joined to create a single issuing centre. This will be based in the British Consulate-General in Paris.
The cost of passport fees has been frozen this year. In order to keep costs covered, the government is committed to looking for opportunities to reduce administration, centralise excellence and deliver beneficial economies of scale. Moving passport services from Brussels to Paris delivers this without affecting our Public Service Agreement commitment to deliver 90% of passports within ten working days.
Successful hub-and-spoke arrangements already exist in large countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, affecting over 120,000 customers a year. Since last October all passport applications in Portugal, where demand for passports is greater than in Belgium, are now processed in Madrid. This has worked well, and has not affected our commitment to deliver 90% of passports within ten working days.
The Brussels passport issuing facility (other consular services will still be provided) is not the first to close as part of a wider strategy to make passport services abroad sustainable in the longer term. The next three to four years will see a number of other changes to the way we issue passports overseas. At the heart of these changes there lies a strong desire to maintain good customer service and value for money (including to UK Taxpayers), whilst meeting the need for greater protection of personal data and identity. It’s a difficult balancing act, but we believe that a global hub and spoke arrangement will put us in a stronger position to deliver further enhancements to the application process, including the development of online services and more secure emergency travel documents for those who need them.
So far the new arrangements between Brussels and Paris are working well. Urgent cases have been expedited successfully, and the continuing ability for Brussels to issue Emergency Passports has been very useful.
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