The number of passport applications increased significantly in 2022 after the lifting of COVID-19 international travel restrictions and a lengthy backlog of passport applications has developed, causing delays. The Committee will question senior officials at the Home Office on trends in passport applications in the past and since the COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted. Following …
| Title | HC No. | Published | Items | Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation into the UK Passport O… | HC 738 | 6 Apr 2023 | 29 | Responded |
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office (the Department) and His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) on HMPO’s performance processing passport applications in 2022.1
We asked the Department how satisfied it was with HMPO’s performance in meeting customer expectations in the spring and summer of 2022. The Department asserted that, given the number of applications that had been processed, there were some things to be positive about, but that “clearly, there are some customers …
Given that the total demand in 2022 was lower than predicted, we asked the Department how it would have managed had the total number of applications been 9.5 million as it predicted. The Department told us that its performance would have depended on when applications were received, but accepted that …
Between January and September 2022, around 360,000 people did not receive their passports within 10 weeks. The Department asserted that when it became aware that a customer needed to travel, it would escalate that individual’s case, at no further cost.11 We asked the Department what it had done to assess …
HMPO issues guidance to let customers know how long it takes to process a standard passport application; this is currently set at 10 weeks.23 We asked HMPO to clarify whether this included the time it took for an application to be received and logged onto HMPO’s system, following concerns that …
HMPO had not planned for the large number of applications that needed to be transferred, and the process is labour-intensive for Sopra Steria Ltd., which has to move the applications from one system to the other. HMPO told us that it did not have enough staff to deal with the …
HMPO estimated that at least three million customers who delayed renewing or applying for their passports due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have not yet done so. At the time of the NAO report, it expected to receive approximately 9.8 million applications in 2023 – 1.3 million more than it …
| Date | Witnesses | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Dec 2022 | Matthew Rycroft CBE · Home Office, Thomas Greig · HM Passport Office, Tricia Hayes CB · Home Office | View ↗ |
| Date | Direction | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan 2023 | — | Correspondence from Sir Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re u… |