IPS gets new chief

Rapson will take up her post on 15 July 2010 after the retirement of the present chief executive, James Hall. For the past two years she has been the Identity and Passport Service's executive director of service planning and delivery and has been responsible for leading 2,600 service delivery staff. Rapson joined the Home Office in 2005 as director of passport operations and was responsible for seven regional offices and 69 interview offices across the UK. Commenting on her new role, Rapson said: "There are significant challenges ahead but I'm confident that with the work James has already done to get us to this point, I will have a solid foundation on which to build. "I now want to work with colleagues across the IPS to build upon our reputation for great customer service by transforming how we provide passport and civil registration services, improving our online passport application service, moving forward with our registration modernisation and continuing to provide citizens with a secure passport and a trusted and efficient registration service." The IPS, which had been responsible for the former government's National Identity Card scheme faces an uncertain future. It spent £1.3m on advertising identity cards alone, some £300 for every ID card applicant, before the scheme was scrapped by the coalition government.