Deprivation of British citizenship and withdrawal of passports 4.2 Notice and right of appeal Passport Office guidance for officials states that withdrawal of passports must be fair, reasonable and give reasons for the decision: We must: • have reasonable grounds to withdraw passports or passport facilities • withdraw passports and passport facilities fairly • give customers enough information about why we decided to withdraw their passport or passport facilities so they can challenge our decision (for example, if it was based on wrong information) • consider exceptional circumstances that allows the customer to keep, renew (or replace) their passport Before deciding to withdraw a passport or passport facilities, we must: • consider each case on its own merits • take care to correctly apply the guidance • make sure the reason we need to withdraw a passport or passport facilities is: – – – • correct reasonable fair be able to clearly show why we are withdrawing a passport or passport facilities89 Someone whose passport has been withdrawn can request an internal review of the decision. 90 As passports are issued at the Home Secretary’s discretion there is no right of appeal against a decision to withdraw the passport. However, someone whose passport has been withdrawn is not left without a legal remedy. The exercise of the prerogative power to cancel a passport can be challenged by applying for judicial review in the High Court. 91 89 90 91 24 HM Passport Office, Withdrawing passports and passport facilities: caseworker guidance, version 11.0, 9 September 2024, p6 HM Government, Counter-Terrorism Disruptive Powers Report 2023, CP 1212, 28 November 2024, p21 R (Everett) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [1988] EWCA Civ 7, 20 October 1988 Commons Library Research Briefing, 18 December 2024