Newport Passport Application Processing Centre serves the whole of Wales and south west England. It deals with 47,000 passport applications annually-around 10 per cent of the national total. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) proposes to close the Passport Office at Newport, with a loss of over 300 jobs, although the Home Office announced that a customer service centre would be retained in Newport to service South Wales and the South West of England. The piecemeal nature of the announcements suggests the lack of a co-ordinated strategy regarding the future of the IPS in Wales. The Office's significance to Wales and its value to the Welsh economy have not been truly appreciated by the Government. No economic impact assessment of the proposal has been completed, and the criteria on which the decision was based should be re-examined. The Newport Passport Office is the second largest employer in the city centre. Its closure would have a significant economic impact on the city and would be a further blow for the Welsh economy. The Committee is not convinced that long-term savings will be made by reducing the size of the Office. The IPS should, on the contrary, provide a detailed appraisal of the costs and benefits of consolidation and expansion as opposed to a reduction of services. Without the retention of the office in Newport, the Government's duty to provide a Welsh-language service to users may not be properly discharged.