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Decision on UK passport manufacturer delayed by two weeks
UK government delayed final decision on the manufacturer of the new British passports after UK company De La Rue received support for its complaints over the government's choice of France's Gemalto as their preferred bidder.
The French company is still the favourite to manufacture the passports but the government is looking into De La Rue's appeal. The government recently announced that it will take an extra two weeks to reach a conclusion, setting the deadline for Tuesday 17 April.
"What it means is this process whereby bidders have the ability to make approaches to the Home Office or consider a legal action, as I think De La Rue has spoken about, that process has been extended. This has been a rigorous, fair and open competition. The preferred bidder demonstrated they are best able to meet the needs of the passport service," said a spokesman for Theresa May.
The decision to manufacture the passports in France could save taxpayers as much as £120m, the government said, but it has sparked an angry response in some quarters.
The current EU burgundy passport will revert to the blue and gold colour seen before 1988 from October 2019.
A De La Rue spokeswoman said: "We confirm that we are taking the first steps towards initiating appeal proceedings against the provisional decision to award the British passport contract to a part state-owned Franco-Dutch company
"Based on our knowledge of the market, it's our view that ours was the highest quality and technically most secure bid. We can accept that we weren't the cheapest, even if our tender represented a significant discount on the current price."