Passport staff remote working led to delays
Some 360,000 applicants affected as digital system rollout missed deadline, says National Audit Office
‘Passport Office must learn the lessons from this year and prepare for similar demand expected in 2023’
‘The delay to the latest system is due to essential changes that enabled staff to work from home’
WORKING from home led to passport office delays that jeopardised the travel plans of at least 360,000 Britons, an investigation by the Government’s spending watchdog has found.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said remote working contributed to a delay in completing a new digital system for processing applications.
This meant the system could not handle the post-pandemic surge in applications from millions seeking to renew in the spring and summer.
It forced staff to process applications on paper by hand which was slower and less efficient. This led to the 10-week deadline for returning 360,000 people’s documents being missed.
The report states: “HM Passport Office originally expected to complete its transformation programme by March 2022. When the pandemic began, HMPO expanded the scope of the programme to allow staff to work from home, making it easier to continue processing applications.
“However, this contributed to a delay in completing the programme. HMPO now expects to complete its transformation in 2024-25.”
The disclosure, in a report published today, contradicts claims by executives over the summer that working from home had no impact on its service.
The NAO also disclosed that the “transformation” programme has been “red-rated” by Whitehall, which means “successful delivery of the project appears unachievable”. Gareth Davies, the NAO’S head, said the Passport Office needed to avoid a repeat, even though it processed a record number of applications amid unprecedented demand.
“Limitations in its systems, coupled with difficulties in keeping up with higher-than-average numbers of customers contributed to delays for hundreds of thousands of people, creating anxiety for those with travel plans and hampering people’s ability to prove their identity,” he said.
“HMPO must now learn the lessons from this year and prepare for similar levels of demand expected in 2023.”
The Passport Office estimates there are still at least three million applications expected from people who did not renew or apply during the pandemic. This will push the number this year to 9.8 million, a third more than normal, and above the 9.5 million predicted.
Thomas Greig, director of passports, told MPS in July, he was “very confident, having seen the way that our work has progressed over the last few years and months and having seen our productivity, that working from home has not been an issue”.
However, the NAO report said the decision to allow staff to work from home when the pandemic began “contributed to a delay in completing the digital transformation programme”.
The NAO said the Passport Office was relying on the new programme to meet the anticipated surge in applications but the delay meant it could. “Between January and September, limitations in the digital system meant HM Passport Office had to move 134,000 applications to the less efficient, paper-based system,” said the NAO.
Not only was it slower, but it meant staff did not know how long applications had been in the system. In some cases, this meant applicants who had already been waiting four weeks were put back to the start of the queue.
“Customers who phoned for updates were wrongly informed their applications were still within the 10-week application period,” said the NAO.
The delays were compounded by staff shortages after a recruitment campaign fell short, the failure of attempts to alert the public to allow 10 weeks for applications and its telephone helpline subsequently becoming overwhelmed.
The Home Office said it had worked hard to rectify the problems. “The delay to the transition to the latest passport application system, DAP, is due to essential changes that enabled our staff to work from home while social distancing measures were in force.”