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Government say Inverness passport office is not shutting down… Despite SNP claims

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The UK Government has rejected SNP claims that the passport office in Inverness is shutting down next month.

But the Home Office has confirmed the interview facility in Dundee is being closed on March 17.

The Press and Journal understands that applicants who require a face-to-face appointment will now have to travel to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Concerns were raised by SNP deputy leader, Stewart Hosie, who wrote to the director general of HM Passport Office, Mark Thomson, requesting urgent clarification over the future of the service in the two cities.

Sixteen of his colleagues also signed the letter, including Highland MP Drew Hendry and the members for Aberdeen, Callum McCaig and Kirsty Blackman.

But, despite no official announcement, Mr Hosie told the P&J he had “become aware” the passport interview facility at Greenmarket in Dundee and the office in Inverness would be wound up from March 17.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed the story was true in relation to Dundee, but not the Highland capital.

Mr Hosie said the Dundee office was “permanently full” in terms of demand for interviews from people in Tayside, Aberdeenshire – as far north as the Moray Firth – and most of Fife since the closure of the Aberdeen facility.

He also pointed to other towns and cities across the UK with smaller populations that still have offices.

Aberdeen North MP Mrs Blackman insisted that expecting people to travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh was “simply unacceptable”.

She added: “The UK Government, time and again, show they have no conception of the geography of Scotland, the time it takes to travel outside of the M25, or the costs of transport.”

Former Aberdeen City Council leader Mr McCaig, who represents the Aberdeen South Westminster constituency, complained that “drastic cuts” to services controlled by the UK Government were too often impacting directly on the north-east.

Mr McCaig said cutting “significant and busy services without consultation” would be “incredibly short-sighted”.

He added: “Extra costs for people forced to travel down and back to Glasgow in a day, just for a short face-to-face interview with a passport office official, seem to be another inconvenience the UK Government is content to inflict on [Scottish] people.”