Recommendation 29

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