Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria are used by her Department to select the post offices used for the issue of biometric residence permits.

The collection network was designed by Post Office Limited using anonymised, historical immigration data provided by the Home Office and the requirement that, on average, an applicant should not have to travel more than 30 miles to collect their BRP. In addition, the top 20 Post Office branches already used to enrol biometrics were excluded from the collection network to avoid adversely affecting the Post Office’s ability to collect biometrics and provide its other services during the early autumn.