MEDIA RELEASE

New UK Passport Production Centre means more jobs for Wellington

A new UK passport production centre built for the British Government in Wellington has meant 21 more jobs for the city.

The new Passport Production centre for the Australasian Region, which has a staff of 37, will officially be opened by the United Kingdom’s Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, Chris Bryant when he visits Wellington on the 31st of July.

The new centre, built inside the British High Commission’s building in Thorndon, will process an estimated 85,000 passport applications annually. It will handle passport applications from Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

The High Commissioner George Fergusson says the move to process the region’s passports in Wellington will offer significant savings for the British Government, and more importantly, the British taxpayer, while retaining existing service standards for the majority of applicants.

“This new production centre is part of a world-wide rationalisation of the overseas British passport operation into a smaller number of enlarged offices world-wide and already the new centre is meeting its targets for issuing British passports,” said Mr Fergusson.

The new Wellington Passport Production Centre will be the biggest such operation outside the United Kingdom.

ENDS