claim: UK passports are produced by non-UK companies.
evidence: The new (blue) UK passport is produced by Thales Group (headquartered in France). However, passports will be personalised with the holder’s details in the UK. In a Facebook posting, it was claimed that several elements of the production of UK passports are done by non-UK companies. The image also claims that a company based in Durham, England, was unsuccessful in a tender for an element of this work and is facing bankruptcy. The posting shows an image of a blue-covered UK passport, with the following description: "Made by a Franco-Dutch company in Poland using Italian software to print Spanish ink on to Finnish paper in a tender that beat the company in Durham which is now facing bankruptcy." [...] The UK Government put the contract for the manufacture of UK passports out to tender under existing laws at the time. The contract was awarded to a Franco-Dutch firm that is now part of the Thales Group, based in France.