The Foreign & Commonwealth Office Passport Network Rationalisation project was tasked to deliver a more streamlined, efficient and sustainable overseas passport operation.  

The overseas passport operation is self-funding and has been operating at a loss for over five years.  With increasing demand for document security (requiring the introduction of more sophisticated and expensive issuing systems), we have to find a way to balance our books.  

In order to cut our running costs and avoid a significant rise in passport fees, we need to reduce the number of locations where we process applications and print books. The National Audit Office recommended this course of action in 2006, with the added benefit of reducing opportunities for fraud by having less blank passports in circulation.  

The UK is alone among major partners in continuing to print passports abroad. Most countries repatriate all printing and personalisation to a central domestic production facility. Customers typically have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for a passport.