Families ‘high and dry’ over half-term after passports lost
THE number of passports lost by the Home Office has hit a five-year high, raising concerns that families will be left “high and dry” for the start of halfterm at the end of this week.
Processing delays are also rife, as more than 400,000 people – one in 20 applicants – wait more than 10 weeks.
The Passport Office, an agency of the Home Office, has struggled to cope with a post-pandemic surge in applications, with many of its staff still working from home.
From January to September last year, there were 487 cases of passports and supporting documents being “confirmed as lost” while “in the possession of providers of secure delivery providers” in the UK – the highest for any year going back to at least 2018. The number of passports taking more than 10 weeks to be processed rose to 409,063 last year, up from 61,210 in 2021.
The Liberal Democrats obtained the data by submitting parliamentary questions. Wera Hobhouse, Lib Dem MP for Bath, said: “These are new heights of incompetence for the Home Office. British travellers who urgently need new passports are being left high and dry by these endless delays.”
Before April 2021, the expected turnaround for passport applications was three weeks.
Last month, Thomas Greig, the director of passports, citizenship and registration at the Passport Office, told MPS that while the agency had returned to the three-week target, applicants were being warned that it could take up to 10 weeks because of an expected surge in applications this spring.
Mr Greig also said one in five Passport Office staff were working from home, despite the National Audit Office finding that home working had contributed to processing delays as it slowed the completion of a new digital system.
A Passport Office spokesman said: “In 2022 we served more customers than ever before ... For the small percentage of people whose applications took longer than the guidance of 10 weeks, our expedited service was provided at no additional cost to ensure that they received their passports ahead of any travel.”