Future of the Newport Passport office

The Welsh Affairs Committee has decided to hold a one off evidence session to investigate the future of the Passport Office in Newport on Tuesday 16 November, following the statement from the Wales Office regarding the closure of the office.

Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, David T. C. Davies said,

"The closure of the Passport Office would have a huge impact on Newport and potentially much wider ramifications for Wales as a whole. This Committee will always be keen to examine issues within our remit which affect the people of Wales. We have therefore decided to hold an inquiry into this matter at the first date available to us."

The Committee asks for written submissions on this issue in accordance with the guidelines stated below. The deadline for written submissions is Monday 8 November 2010. Witnesses for the session will be announced in due course.

Please note
Each submission should:

• begin with a short summary in bullet point form;

• have numbered paragraphs; and

• be in Word format or a rich text format with as little use of colour or logos as possible.

Please do not send your submission as a PDF document.

A copy of the submission should be sent by e-mail to welshcom@parliament.uk and marked “The future of Newport Passport office”.
An additional paper copy should be sent to:
Welsh Affairs Committee
House of Commons
7 Millbank
London
SW1P 3JA.

It would be helpful, for Data Protection purposes, if individuals submitting written evidence send their contact details separately in a covering letter. You should be aware that there may be circumstances in which the House of Commons will be required to communicate information to third parties on request, in order to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please supply a postal address so a copy of the Committee’s report can be sent to you upon publication.

A guide for written submissions to Select Committees may be found on the parliamentary website at http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/witnessguide.pdf

Please also note that:

• Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to within a proposed memorandum, in which case a hard copy of the published work should be included.

• Memoranda submitted must be kept confidential until published by the Committee, unless publication by the person or organisation submitting it is specifically authorised.

• Once submitted, evidence is the property of the Committee. The Committee normally, though not always, chooses to make public the written evidence it receives, by publishing it on the internet (where it will be searchable), by printing it or by making it available through the Parliamentary Archives. If there is any information you believe to be sensitive you should highlight it and explain what harm you believe would result from its disclosure. The Committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish or further disclose the evidence.

• Select Committees are unable to investigate individual cases.