Until April 1984, the Passport Office had been part of the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Following the
Rayner reviews, the Passport Office was transferred to the
Home Office. In 1991, the service became an
executive agency as the
United Kingdom Passport Agency (
UKPA). The Identity and Passport Service was established on 1 April 2006, following the passing of the
Identity Cards Act 2006, which merged the UK Passport Service with the Home Office's Identity Cards programme to form a new
executive agency. In 2007, the ninety
British diplomatic missions that issued passports were consolidated into seven regional passport processing centres (RPPCs) based in
Düsseldorf,
Hong Kong,
Madrid,
Paris,
Pretoria, and
Washington, D.C. and
Wellington, with an additional centre in
Dublin. By March 2014 the issue of overseas passports was transferred from
FCDO to HMPO and the seven international regional offices had been closed. The
Identity Documents Act 2010 repealed the Identity Cards Act 2006 and required the cancellation of all identity cards and the destruction of all data held. On 1 April 2011, responsibility for British passports issued overseas passed from the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office to IPS. The printing of passports issued overseas had been done in the UK since August 2011, and the administrative work performed at these RPPCs was repatriated to the UK during the 2013–14
financial year. From April 2014, all British nationals based overseas had to apply for their passports directly to the UK. The Identity and Passport Service was renamed HM Passport Office on 13 May 2013, in an effort to distance the agency from association with the scrapped
National Identity Register and ID cards. The government's press release stated that "The inclusion of 'Her Majesty's' in the title recognises that passports are the property of
the Crown, bear the
Royal Coat of Arms, and are issued under the
Royal Prerogative." HMPO's
executive agency status was removed on 1 October 2014, and it became a division within the Home Office. Its board reports directly to the Home Office's executive management board.
Teleperformance is contracted to provide customer service for the office. It is a £22.8m contract over five years. == See also ==