Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Acknowledged
HMPO had not planned for the large number of applications that needed to be transferred,...
Conclusion
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 unexpected volume of paper-based applications, particularly at the beginning of the summer of 2022. HMPO explained that this was due to recruitment delays, and the fact that not enough staff were trained in the paper-based system. HMPO told us that it had now trained over 1,000 staff in both systems so it can move staff between the two systems as needed.29 28 Qq 46, 50 29 Q 78; C&AG’s Report para 3.9 Investigation into the UK Passport Office 13 2 Managing future demand The performance of suppliers
Government Response Summary
The government states that they agree with the Committee’s recommendation, but proceeds to describe actions already taken to improve the procurement and management of third-party suppliers and improve the work of Teleperformance and Sopra Steria, rather than committing to new action.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 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. 4.3 For the work of Teleperformance and Sopra Steria, HM Passport Office has worked closely with them to help ensure that they meet the required service level throughout 2023. 4.4 In the first quarter of 2022, the work of Sopra Steria was affected by a reduction in desk capacity due to social distancing. Additionally, there were some recruitment delays with the onboarding of agency staff. This has subsequently been resolved through joint-working to reduce the time taken to security clear these staff. 4.5 Sopra Steria has consistently met its key performance measures for back-office processing at HM Passport Office from June 2022 to date. 4.6 While Teleperformance did not meet the required standard until August 2022, HM Passport Office worked with them constructively to resolve this as quickly as possible. Following the introduction of a number of improvements, Teleperformance have met the required service levels for call answering since August 2022. 4.7 However, as part of lessons learned from last year, HM Passport Office has added greater resilience to its provision of customer contact services by appointing an additional supplier. Serco, who commenced this work on 22 March 2023, will handle approximately 25% of calls to the Passport Adviceline and provide extra resilience to Teleperformance, with the overall contact centre spend estimated to deliver around £2 million savings over a two-year period.