Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many travel documents were (a) applied for and (b) issued in each year since 1 January 2009.

The information is set out in the table below:

2009
22,672
14,183

2010
26,652
15,095

2011
23,722
16,791

2012
20,667
8,139

2013
22,567
12,811

Totals
116,280
67,019

To provide context to the figures, it should be noted that a policy change was
implemented in February 2012 requiring all travel document applicants to have
or simultaneously apply for a Biometric Residence Permit to confirm status.
This subsequently resulted in a doubling of processing times. However, the
backlog of applications was cleared in February this year and the Home Office's
Travel Document Section has since returned to agreed service levels.