Recommendations & Conclusions
17 items
3
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
Weaknesses in HMPO’s understanding of how applications moved through its systems caused frustration and confusion for customers. HMPO experienced problems with its management information. For example, HMPO has moved 134,000 applications from its digital system to its legacy paper-based system as its digital system was unable to handle the surge …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states that HM Passport Office has undertaken a thorough assessment of its management information and delivered a number of improvements to its reporting mechanisms, including improvements in the reporting of work across its …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
Despite HMPO’s work to prepare for increased demand for passports, poor performance by contractors exacerbated issues for customers. We are concerned that in some cases it was clear that the performance of external contractors was deteriorating as early as March 2022. Sopra Steria, responsible for opening and scanning paper applications …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states that The Home Office works to continually improve its ability to procure and manage third party suppliers, using lessons learned to further support the robust monitoring of compliance against contract requirements.
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
We remain to be convinced that HMPO’s digital transformation programme will be completed by 2025. Many of HMPO’s difficulties meeting the demand in 2022 stemmed from, or were exacerbated by, issues with its transformation programme. The future of HMPO’s operations rely on successfully completing the programme, but it is already …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and provides an update on actions taken to address each of the recommendations from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s August 2022 review, including commissioning an independent review of the DAP Programme, separating responsibilities of …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
We are disappointed by the Department and HMPO’s lack of ambition in their plans to meet demand for passports in 2023 and beyond. HMPO estimates that there are still three million customers who did not renew or apply for passports during the pandemic and expects a level of demand in …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states that HM Passport Office has worked to deliver a number of improvements, including improved workflow management information and analytics, appointing an additional supplier to handle calls, and continuing to develop its digital …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
Teleperformance, the contractor responsible for HMPO’s customer support telephone line, failed to meet its service level agreement of answering 80% of calls within 30 seconds from March 2022 to July 2022. In May, it only managed to answer 14% of calls within 30 seconds.17 We asked the Department about an …
Government response. The government describes actions already taken, stating that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to help ensure that they meet the required service level throughout 2023, and has appointed an additional supplier to provide greater …
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
Difficulties with the customer helpline meant that many customers contacted their MP to try and resolve issues with their passport applications. The NAO reported that the Department received 11,400 letters from MPs regarding HMPO business between January and July 2022.19 Following our evidence session, the Department wrote to us confirming …
Government response. The Home Office states that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to ensure they meet the required service level throughout 2023 and that Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures since June 2022, …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
HMPO acknowledged that customer queries were being sent from one office to another to be resolved. HMPO told us that it was establishing a ‘Resolution Hub’ to try and reduce the number of contacts a customer query passes through, and thereby improve the customer experience. We asked HMPO what assurance …
Government response. HM Passport Office has delivered a number of improvements to its reporting mechanisms to address weaknesses, including improvements in the reporting of work across its application systems and workflow management information and analytics.
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
HMPO experienced difficulties understanding how applications were moving through its systems due to weaknesses in its management information. Because HMPO’s digital system was not fully developed, it did not have the capability to process all types of applications, and could not manage the volume of applications HMPO was receiving. As …
Government response. HM Passport Office has delivered a number of improvements to its reporting mechanisms to address weaknesses, including improvements in the reporting of work across its application systems and workflow management information and analytics.
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
While HMPO was confident it had now resolved this issue, it took two to three months for HMPO to discover the problem, and only after it was raised with them by customers. We asked HMPO why it had taken it so long to realised that there was a problem with …
Government response. The Home Office states that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to ensure they meet the required service level throughout 2023 and that Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures since June 2022, …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
As part of its planning for the anticipated increase in demand, HMPO engaged with suppliers to bolster its stock of passport books as well as its ability to deliver completed passports to customers. It also shared information and demand forecasts with suppliers to help them prepare. Despite this, a number …
Government response. The Home Office states that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to ensure they meet the required service level throughout 2023 and that Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures since June 2022, …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
HMPO stockpiled passport books and worked with Thales to procure additional storage for these. Thales’s performance decreased in March and April 2022, with the percentage of items printed within 48 hours dropping from 100% in January and February 2022, to 85% and then 56% respectively. HMPO told us that this …
Government response. The Home Office states that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to ensure they meet the required service level throughout 2023 and that Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures since June 2022, …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
Sopra Steria Ltd. failed to meet its service level targets for five months from March to July 2022. Its worst performance was in April, when an average of just 42% of applications were processed within the target timescale, and it sometimes took up to two and a half weeks to …
Government response. The Home Office states that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to ensure they meet the required service level throughout 2023 and that Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures since June 2022, …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
Teleperformance has a service level target of 80% of calls being answered by a person within 30 seconds. It failed to meet this target from April to July 2022. In April, it received 625,000 calls in one week, nearly 350% above the forecast, during which time 55% of calls were …
Government response. The Home Office states that HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria to ensure they meet the required service level throughout 2023 and that Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures since June 2022, …
HM Treasury
22
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
We asked HMPO how it was ensuring that suppliers had sufficient capacity to meet the expected demand for passports in future. HMPO told us that it was taking actions to reduce supplier issues in 2023, which was different for different suppliers. It explained that it had given suppliers estimates of …
Government response. The government agreed with the recommendation and states HM Passport Office has worked closely with Teleperformance and Sopra Steria and has appointed Serco to handle approximately 25% of calls and provide extra resilience, estimated to deliver around £2 million savings …
HM Treasury
23
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
HMPO’s ability to process applications efficiently hinges on the successful delivery of its digital transformation programme, which began in 2016 and was originally expected to be completed by March 2022. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme’s scope had to be quickly expanded to accommodate staff working from home, which contributed …
Government response. The government agreed to set out the actions taken to address each of the recommendations from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s August 2022 review, and explain what contingencies they are putting in place should there be further delays to the …
HM Treasury
24
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
The scope of the programme has increased significantly since it began and in 2021 it was added to the Government Major Projects Portfolio. In August 2022, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) rated the programme Red, and recommended that the programme should not proceed to the next phase until HMPO …
Government response. The government agreed to set out how it will better manage demand for passports in the future and what outcomes it will use to measure its performance; it describes workflow improvements, more robust customer service, further development to digital solutions, …
HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Accepted
The Department and HMPO asserted multiple times that they were learning lessons from their experience in 2022 to avoid similar problems in 2023 and beyond, including conducting internal reviews.51 However, HMPO has experienced similar issues in the 42 Qq 99–100 43 Letter from Sir Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, …
Government response. The government agreed with the Committee’s recommendation. It said that it is fully resourced, and that following workflow improvements, any application transferred to AMS is now brought to the correct place in the queue to begin processing. It also said …
HM Treasury