The announcement by the Identity and Passport Services to axe over 100 workers at the Glasgow Passport Office and redirect postal applications services to England has been met by a furious response from workers.

Workers at the Glasgow office are incensed that they only found out about the loss of their jobs through the media and did not receive written notification until it had leaked to the press by the Home Office.

However it has emerged that another three to four offices are set to go, a move which will lead to the loss of Postal Application Services from amongst the remaining offices in Belfast, Durham, Liverpool, London, Newport or Peterborough and the loss of hundreds more jobs.
 

Questions have also been raised as to whether or not the reasons given for the Glasgow closure are in fact accurate.

In the letter to staff the IPS stated that operations at Glasgow were being axed due to a fall in demand claiming that Glasgow currently processes around 350,00 passports per year.

However questions asked in the UK parliament have revealed that last year Glasgow received over 554,000 passport requests and that this workload had increased year on year to a peak of over 650,000 in 2006 leading to fears that the Glasgow office has been deliberately run down over the last year to make way for this announcement.

Commenting on these developments Sandra White MSP for the Glasgow Region said:

"This whole announcement gets both more contemptuous and suspicious as we learn more of the facts.

"It is simply unacceptable for staff to find out that there jobs are to go through the media and the Home Office should apologise for the workers who have been treated this way.

"Questions also needed to be asked as to whether the figures given are entirely accurate or if they have been massaged to justify the decision given the huge disparity between the Passport Agency's claims and official answers to Parliamentary questions. Only one set can be right.

"I have also received evidence that mail has already been redirected to Durham and Peterborough flatly contradicting the IPS claim that, it has not yet been decided where these postal applications will be sent to in future and evidence that the service has been run down to pave the way for the job losses.

"I will be meeting workers next week to discuss the best way forward and I have written to the Passport Agency asking them to clarify these points and  provide information as to when the other offices in Britain will be closing.

"It am sure it will come as a shock to the other passport office workers throughout the UK that they too will see large job losses and that they will want to know what is going on.

"I would urge them to give their full support to their colleagues in Glasgow in there actions to fight these cuts."