MP slams loss of passport contract

MICHAEL Meacher has hit out at the Government for abandoning Oldham — which has produced the British passport for 40 years — in favour of a company with little experience.

The Oldham West and Royton MP said awarding the passport contract in June last year to De La Rue not Chadderton-based 3M was a mistake, and the original procurement was “seriously flawed”. He called for the new, non-exclusive passport contract to be retendered.

The Labour MP told the Commons 3M had informed government they could save £100 million over the 10-year period of the contract —and awarding it to the Oldham company would protect 100 jobs.

Mr Meacher added: “In the current circumstances, £100 million is not a sum to be sniffed at. It is not far short of 1 per cent of the entire spending cuts that the Government hope to make in this fiscal year; a reduction of that magnitude cannot be dismissed or disregarded.”

Speaking in a half-hour Commons debate he secured on the UK passport contract, Mr Meacher said the product quality and the volume of passports 3M can produce was second to none.

He said: “I can say without risk of rebuttal that De La Rue, to which the British passport has been entrusted, has no great track record in the production of this quantity of passports.”

Mr Meacher claimed 3M produced all the passports in the UK, maximising jobs, compared with De La Rue, which proposes to produce some in Malta.

“If the contract goes ahead without retender, more than 100 jobs will be removed from the current operation. I understand that only a tiny fraction of those employees will find employment under the new contract,” he said.

Immigration minister Damian Green said he could not discuss commercially sensitive information but said Mr Meacher was right to fight for jobs.

Mr Green said the contract was awarded under the previous government and he had no reason to believe it was anything but fair and open to competition. He added no new information had been provided to merit a retender and that the De La Rue contract represented better value for money as there was no evidence 3M could fulfil the contract at £100 million less.