Holidaymakers face nine-hour waits on calls to Passport Office

PASSPORT “chaos” has left people waiting on the phone for up to nine hours, MPS have revealed.

Ministers were also told of holidaymakers who had made 40 calls to get updates on their passport applications as they demanded compensation for people who did not get their documents within 10 weeks.

Tom Pursglove, Home Office minister, admitted around one in 70 applicants – some 3,000 out of the 250,000 being processed every week – were taking longer than 10 weeks to complete.

Mr Pursglove told MPS that the 10-week target was “not guaranteed” but insisted 700 extra staff will have been recruited “by the summer” to help – and 90 per cent were being processed within six weeks.

The Government expects 9.5million British passport applications in 2022 after up to five million people delayed renewing them while there were Covid restrictions on travel.

Among MPS who have tried to help anxious constituents is Jacob Young, Conservative MP for Redcar, who said one member of his casework team “spent nine hours on the phone to the Passport Office last week” and “didn’t manage to get through all day”. Nick Smith, the Labour MP, said one constituent told him he had called the helpline 40 times in the past week and had been cut off. “He told me: ‘I don’t know what to do and I am breaking down at this point’. Another constituent told me: ‘We are due to fly out on Sunday but are still unable to get our youngest son’s passport. Every time I phone I get passed to a different department, then hold, then the phone line goes dead’.

“The facts are there are long queues outside passport offices, hours and hours spent on phone lines, and families afraid of holidays getting cancelled.”

Barry Gardiner, a Labour MP, cited an elderly couple who had applied before Christmas. “By the end of March, they still hadn’t had it, by which time they had missed a niece’s wedding and then, sadly, a sister’s funeral.

“It was only after multiple interventions that we eventually got that passport sorted at the end of last month. This is absolutely unacceptable.”

Sir Christopher Chope, Conservative former minister, called for anyone who failed to get their documents within 10 weeks to get compensation.

Mr Pursglove said Teleperformance, the French provider of the advice line, is to add more than 500 staff by mid-june from its position in mid-april.

He added: “It is right that we have candid conversations about performance against contracts. That does happen. That is happening in relation to these matters.”