Families desperate for a trip abroad this summer are at risk of missing out on their hard-earned holidays after passports and key documents were lost by couriers. Recruitment issues and massive backlogs are causing chaos for those who were hoping to get away for the first time since travel restrictions have eased.
While Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently threatened to privatise the Passport Office, new data reveals that the privatised delivery services are the ones at the heart of the problem. Despite the number of passports being sent out decreasing between 2020 and 2021 when travel restrictions were implemented, the amount lost by delivery courier TNT, which has the exclusive contract, shot up, reported The Mirror.
According to a Freedom of Information request to the Passport Office, 6,681,299 passports were issued in 2018 with around 422 passports or “supporting documents” lost “during delivery by courier” or 0.006 per cent.
Similarly, in 2019, 6,707,500 passports were issued and 437 were lost. However, in 2020, when borders closed and travelling was mostly not allowed, the number of passports issued fell to 3,948,060 and yet 519 never arrived at their destination.
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Last year, with many coronavirus restrictions still in place, 4,823,620 passports were issued but a staggering 1,196 were lost during delivery by courier - and that only covers 2021 to July. While talks are ongoing to recruit more staff to ease delays and address the surge in passport applications, the government has been urged to address the issues caused by the privatised delivery services.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The passport crisis is a total scandal. Families are missing out on hard-earned breaks and losing thousands in cancelled holidays, all because of Home Office ministers’ incompetence.
“Delays in decisions and problems with deliveries are causing a total nightmare for families who have been really looking forward to a first holiday away after Covid.
“Boris Johnson may have threatened to privatise the Passport Office but as the Mirror's data makes clear, it's the private contracts that are causing some of the worst problems. Ministers need to get a grip of the TNT contract and sort out the delays before more families lose out.”
Prospect union general secretary Mike Clancy urged the government to invest in public servants rather than "threatening massive, damaging cuts" to the civil service.
“Lack of government investment has already caused passport chaos, with many families facing huge uncertainty about whether they will get away for a break this summer," he said. “Now we find out that the privatised delivery service is losing passports at a record rate too."
Courier delivery services company TNT was awarded a £77 million, three-year deal in July 2019 with the contract due to end this summer.
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said the number of passports being lost during delivery "simply isn't good enough".
He said: “The Home Office is presiding over a sloppy shop. It's high time ministers get a grip of this mess and step in to save the summer holidays for people left waiting on passports that'll never arrive."
FedEx, which owns TNT, said the easing of Covid-19 restrictions was to blame for the chaos. A spokeswoman said: “Last year, when Covid-19 restrictions eased, we saw a significant increase in items being delivered through our dedicated HMPO (Passport Office) network.
“This had a regrettable, short term impact on service levels, which were restored after taking a number of operational actions.
“Since December 2021, we have been operating successfully within the service level requirements agreed with HMPO and we continue to stay focused on providing a reliable service for our customers.’’
The Passport Office said that many of the passports and documents lost during delivery were later recovered and that they were working on reducing the number of losses overall.
A spokesman said: “Between January 1 and July 31 2021 HM Passport Office sent over 3.3 million items to its customers.
“While regrettable, less than 0.04% of those were reported as having been lost during delivery, and many of those items have been subsequently recovered.
“The safety of our customers’ personal data is of paramount importance and every attempt is made to recover lost or mis-delivered documents."
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