Deprivation of British citizenship and withdrawal of passports 4.3 Statistics on passport withdrawals Information on passport withdrawals for national security reasons is made available in transparency publications, as collated in the table below. Withdrawal or refusal of passports for national security reasons, 2013-2023 2013 6 2014 24 2015 23 2016 17 2017 14 2018 5 2019 3 2020 2 2021 1 2022 3 2023 0 Sources: HM Government, Counter-Terrorism Disruptive Powers Reports, 2020-2024. Annual totals sum to 98 but the government says that the cumulative total from 2013 to 2023 is 97. There is also data on internal reviews (where the Home Office checks its own decision to withdraw a passport). The figures show: • • From 2014 to 2018 there were 48 reviews, of which 13 were successful 92 From 2019 to 2023 there were 40 reviews, of which 32 were successful 93 The Home Office can undertake a review of its own initiative if new information comes to light, so these figures are not necessarily the success rate of review requests. As with deprivation of citizenship, withdrawal of passports as a national security tool appears to have fallen into disuse in the late 20th century before being revived in the 21st. 94 92 93 94 25 HM Government, Transparency report: disruptive powers 2018 to 2019, CP 212, 19 March 2020, p19 HM Government, Counter-Terrorism Disruptive Powers Reports, 2022-2024 Scott PF, “Passports, the right to travel, and national security in the Commonwealth”, (2020) 69(2) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 365, p17 of online version Commons Library Research Briefing, 18 December 2024