The Passport Office has admitted that more than 50,000 Britons have been waiting more than 10 weeks for their passport, as civil servants struggle with a record number of applications before the summer holiday getaway.
MPs were told on Wednesday that there were 550,000 passport applications in the system at the end of June and that one in 10 had exceeded the 10-week turnaround that people are advised by the Passport Office to allow for.
Thomas Greig, the Passport Office’s director of passports, citizenship and civil registration, apologised to people whose applications were stuck in the system. He said the service was dealing with an unprecedented level of demand after millions of people delayed renewing their passport during the pandemic.
“We have reached record levels of output and have delivered a decent service for the vast majority of our applicants,” Greig said. “For a small proportion of people we have not delivered the service we would like and our whole focus at the moment is on trying to resolve these applications so people can access their passport if they need it urgently. I’m personally very sorry for those people.”
Passport applications have soared as overseas travel has resumed after the hiatus caused by the pandemic. In a normal year there are 7m applications but in 2020 and 2021 there were 4m and 5m respectively.
Diana Johnson, the chair of the home affairs select committee, said MPs’ offices were being inundated with requests for help from people struggling to get their passport.
Johnson said she was shocked by the volume of applications in the system, particularly the number of people left waiting for more than 10 weeks. She said this was “completely unacceptable”.
A HMPO spokesperson said: “The overwhelming majority of applications are completed within the published timeframe, with 97.7% of applications being processed within 10 weeks in the first half of this year. But we cannot compromise security checks and people should apply with plenty of time prior to travelling.”
Social media is full of people relating anguished waits for passports as the days count down to summer holidays, with groups devoted to the subject on sites such as Facebook attracting tens of thousands of members. There, users share tips on how to penetrate the bureaucracy surrounding their application amid complaints about the inadequacy of the Passport Office helpline.
Mounting desperation means people are resorting to queueing at dawn with their holiday tickets at their nearest Passport Office branch or embarking on long road trips to try to get hold of their passport where it is being processed.
At end of June the number of applications pending in the system was about 550,000, Greig said. This headline figure was dropping at a rate of about 60,000 a week and he estimated it would now be in the “low 400,000s”, including newly lodged applications.
Greig said the service was grappling with big numbers, with more than 9m passport applications this year. “We have received and processed 5m applications so far, which is more than we processed in the entirety of last year.”
