2
Recommendation
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Rejected
The Department has demonstrated a worrying lack of curiosity about the human impact of HMPO’s poor service or who its customers were. HMPO is unable to say how many people were forced to cancel their travel plans because of their passports being delayed, and has not done any work to …
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The Department has demonstrated a worrying lack of curiosity about the human impact of HMPO’s poor service or who its customers were. HMPO is unable to say how many people were forced to cancel their travel plans because of their passports being delayed, and has not done any work to find out what this number is. It similarly cannot know the number of people who were unable to attend family emergencies or take up employment and does not link passport applications from, for example, a family group. The handling of communication with customers who had applications in progress was also poor. In some cases customers had to call repeatedly and were hung up on when they did get through. The Department received 11,400 letters from MPs regarding constituents’ passport applications as many customers gave up trying to contact HMPO directly. HMPO does not routinely pay compensation for delays because it instructs customers not to book travel without a valid passport. While it did offer refunds for customers whose applications were delayed despite paying for HMPO’s express service, it was unable to say how much it had paid out in total. HMPO recognised that customers who complained were passed between too many staff in different parts of HMPO, and is establishing a new ‘resolution hub’ to improve this and resolve cases first-time. However, it does not expect this to be ready in time for the anticipated 2023 surge in demand. Recommendation 2: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out how it will place a greater emphasis on the experience of HMPO’s customers in the future. HMPO should also collect better data on who is applying for a passport, to provide information to improve its overall service. 6 Investigation into the UK Passport Office
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Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation, asserting that excellent customer service has always been at the forefront of HM Passport Office’s policy-making and processes, and that they regularly gather feedback and monitor complaints.
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HM Treasury
29
Conclusion
Forty-Seventh Report - Investigation in…
Rejected
The Home Affairs Committee examined delays to processing applications in 2014 and similarly concluded that the issue of service standards had been a persistent theme in the way the Department defended the delay in dealing with cases over several governments. The Committee received a large volume of correspondence from members …
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The Home Affairs Committee examined delays to processing applications in 2014 and similarly concluded that the issue of service standards had been a persistent theme in the way the Department defended the delay in dealing with cases over several governments. The Committee received a large volume of correspondence from members of the public who were concerned about the delays, and Members from all side of the House were contacted by constituents about their passports with increasing regularity. In its report, the Committee was concerned that the work in progress figure for passports remained unacceptably high, despite the contingency measures put in place, and recommended that HMPO needed to do more to prevent work in progress getting to this level as it was “clearly unsustainable”. The Committee found that as the crisis developed, the Department took measures to increase processing capacity and reduce demand. The Committee was nonetheless concerned by the apparent miscommunication between HMPO and the Department, as well as the telephone service provided to customers wanting information about their case, and that the contingency measures announced to respond to the backlog were “too little, too late”.53 52 Committee of Public Accounts, The Passport Delays of Summer 1999, Twenty-Fourth Report of Session 1999– 2000, HC 208, 31 January 2000 53 Home Affairs Committee, Her Majesty’s Passport Office: delays in processing applications, Fourth Report of Session 2014–15, HC 238, 16 September 2014 Investigation into the UK Passport Office 17
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Government response AI summary
The government explicitly rejects the committee's observation, stating that excellent customer service is central to HMPO's policy and citing recent Customer Service Excellence reaccreditation and high customer satisfaction scores.
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HM Treasury