It is hardly surprising after two years of travel restrictions due to Covid, that this year there would be more people than usual seeking to renew their passports.
Sadly, the Home Office does not seem to have made any provision for this and the actions of the Prime Minister and his government colleagues in slashing permanent staffing numbers in Passport Offices by a fifth over the last few years have, in fact, made things even worse. With even more cuts planned across all Government departments, “Backlog Britain” is set to continue for some time to come.
Priti Patel’s Home Office should be placed into special measures. The chaos in the Passport Office is just one example of the complete failure – crime is up, prosecutions have collapsed, anti-social behaviour is rife, and the Home Office are making half the asylum decisions they made five years ago. Waiting lists across the government are crippling our economy, costing the taxpayer billions and preventing British people from getting on with their lives.
The Home Office was warned that a surge in passport applications was likely, but they completely failed to do the forward planning needed to prevent the chaos we’ve all seen over the last few months. Their incompetence is preventing families from going on long-awaited and hard-earned holidays, preventing loved ones being reunited and preventing people from attending weddings and funerals. Local families deserve better than this.
The target for passport processing has already been increased to 10 weeks, up from 3 weeks pre-pandemic. However, even this increased target is being repeatedly missed. In the first three months of this year alone, over 35,000 people had to wait longer than 10 weeks for their passport to be issued
It has been reported that the Home Office originally estimated 1,700 new staff members would be needed to deal with the backlog, but they have confirmed less than 1,000 new recruits. Estimates also suggest that between 25-30% of the current Passport Office workforce are agency staff, many of whom will not have received the full package of training needed to process applications quickly and efficiently. There have also been reports of ‘rock bottom morale’ from staff, who also referred to the processing systems as “deeply flawed” and “half-working”.
Despite all of this chaos and mismanagement, I am busy chasing urgent passport cases via the MP’s hotline, but even that seems overwhelmed.
I strongly advise, wherever possible, that you ALLOW CONSIDERABLY MORE THAN TEN WEEKS to get a passport application processed. Check now to see if you need to renew your passport and get the ball rolling as soon as you can.
