Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
We asked HMPO how it was ensuring that suppliers had sufficient capacity to meet the...
Recommendation
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 likely demand that “err on the side of caution” and that it was asking suppliers to plan for higher demand than it expected to receive overall. It also told us that it was working with suppliers to ensure they had plans in place and that these were tested, so that suppliers have enough staff to manage the demand in 2023. HMPO told us that it was also bringing in a second provider for the customer telephone helpline to support Teleperformance. It expected this provider to be in place by the end of February 2023 and that it will manage 25% of customer calls.36 The digital transformation programme
Government Response Summary
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 over two years.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4. PAC conclusion: Despite HMPO’s work to prepare for increased demand for passports, poor performance by contractors exacerbated issues for customers. 4. PAC recommendation: The Department should, as part as its Treasury Minute response, set out the steps it has taken to ensure the problems it experienced with its contractors will not happen again. 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 the 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.