Investigate massive delays and inconsistencies within the Passport Office

The government should investigate the current state of the Passport Office and work towards improving the service overall by shortening wait times, fixing the dire standard of customer service and implement a more detailed tracking system for people's applications.

Current inconsistent wait times and responses (or therefore lack of) from the passport office is currently causing immense amounts of stress for people applying/renewing their or their children's passports.

10 weeks processing time, passports and important documents going missing and total lack of communication or explanation of what is happening at each step in the process causes people to call in/complain online and receive useless responses after paying extortionate amounts of money.

In a normal year, HM Passport Office processes 7 million passport applications. Due to COVID-19, only 4 million applied in 2020, and 5 million in 2021.

Following the return of unrestricted international travel, HM Passport Office forecasted that up to 9.5 million British passport applications would be made in 2022.

HM Passport Office prepared extensively for this unprecedented demand. A project team operated throughout the second half of 2021 with sole focus on ensuring readiness across the service. This included consideration of supplier preparedness, system resilience, and operational capacity.

These preparations have ensured the service has responded robustly to the challenges of this year. More British passport applications have been processed than ever before, with an average of 800,000 applications being completed each month. This has been helped by increasing staff numbers by 1,200 since April 2021. HM Passport Office will continue to recruit to cover attrition and ensure it remains fully resourced.

This impact of COVID-19 on passport services is not unique to the UK, with passport issuing authorities across the world reporting increased processing times.

Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their passport from the UK. 96.4% of applications were completed within that timeframe between January and July of 2022. Where an application from the UK has taken longer than 10 weeks, and the customer can evidence that they are due to travel within the next fortnight, then their case will be prioritised at no additional cost.