FARCEPORT OFFICE
Hol dreams ruined as couriers lose hundreds of documents
BLUNDERING couriers have lost hundreds of passports and other key documents despite the number sent out plummeting.
Some families desperate for an overseas holiday after lockdown have had their hopes dashed because of missing documents and backlogs.
Bosses have been accused of a lack of investment and failing to plan for the surge in passport applications when international travel reopened.
Boris Johnson threatened last month to “privatise the a***” out of the Passport Office over delays.
But we can reveal that a far higher proportion of documents have been lost since 2019 when private firm TNT got a three-year £77million exclusive deal on delivering passports.
A freedom of information request to the Passport Office shows that in 2018 it issued around 6.7 million passports. Some 422 passports or “supporting documents” were lost during delivery by courier.
Last year, 4.8 million passports were issued, but the number lost during delivery by courier rocketed to 1,196 – and that only covers up to July. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The passport crisis is a total scandal. “Boris Johnson may have threatened to privatise the Passport Office but as the Mirror’s data makes clear, it’s the private contracts causing some of the worst problems.” FedEx, which owns TNT, said a rise in the number of items being delivered last year caused a “short-term impact on service levels”.
It added that it has been operating within agreed service level requirements since December 2021.
The Passport Office said “many” items reported as lost last year were “subsequently recovered”. It added: “We continue to work with our delivery partner to... reduce losses.”