Passport to £££: Home Office adds £216M to travel doc contract before a single bid's been placed

Start date pushed back a year, annual cost up a third, and UK's now handing out eight million passports a year

The Home Office has increased the annual value and overall duration of its new passport production contract, increasing it to a total of £576 million as it starts a third round of engagement with suppliers.

The department’s first engagement notice for the Provision of Passport Manufacturing and Personalisation Services contract last July included an estimated total value of £360 million including VAT over 10 years or £36 million a year. The version published on 24 April increases the total value to £576 million including VAT over 12 years or £48 million a year.

The Home Office has also pushed back the contract’s start date from September 2027 to August 2028, as well as postponing the publication of the full tender notice from June to November this year. The latest version says that HM Passport Office issues about eight million passports annually, up from seven million in the first notice, although this would not fully account for the increased annual value.

The Home Office’s current passport production contract with Thales (which bought the winning bidder Gemalto) started in April 2018, with an estimated value of £262 million over 11.5 years or £22.8 million a year. It ends on 30 September 2029.

As well as physical production of passports and other travel documents, the new supplier will have to personalize them with data including biometrics.

It may also need to produce digital travel credentials and make provision “for crypto technologies and contingency solutions.” Potential suppliers will have the chance to ask questions after completing a non-disclosure agreement at an online event on 18 May.

The Home Office disclosed that it will pay IBM £5.88 million including VAT for software licenses and support services to operate and maintain its biometric systems between 1 May 2026 and 30 April 2028.

The department is awarding the contract directly without competition "as the required software and support services are proprietary to IBM and embedded within existing live systems, with no reasonable alternative supplier without disproportionate technical difficulties." ®