This week the House of Commons published a report on the Passport Office entitled 'Delays in Processing Applications'. The key outcomes and recommendations from the report were:
· Her Majesty's Passport Office's (HMPO) performance at the beginning of June was well below target, it continued to deteriorate during that month at an ever increasing rate.
· More than 17 of every 20 overseas applications had been delayed since the beginning of April 2014.
· The transfer of responsibilities for processing overseas passport applications from the Foreign Commonwealth Office to HMPO has been poorly handled. Appropriate questions about business resilience were not being asked.
· HMPO’s own statistics show that in the current financial year to date, only 13% of applications from overseas have been dealt with within the three-week target.
· HMPO could take a more proactive approach to managing demand by sending out reminders to passport holders in the months before their passport is due to expire.
Whilst it is right that applicants are asked to cover the cost of the passport, it is clear that the price they are paying is too high, which is resulting in repeated, large surpluses.
