MPs were told on Wednesday that there were 550,000 passport applications in the system at the end of June and that one in 10 had exceeded the 10-week period people are advised by the Passport Office to allow. Thomas Greig, the Passport Office’s director of passports, citizenship and civil registration, apologized to people whose applications had been stuck in the system. He said the service was facing an unprecedented level of demand after millions of people were delayed in renewing their passports during the pandemic. “We’ve reached record production levels and delivered decent service for the vast majority of our applicants,” Greig said. “For a small percentage of people we have not delivered the service we would like and all our focus at the moment is on trying to resolve these applications so that people can access their passport if they need it urgently. I personally feel very sorry for these people.” Passport applications have soared as overseas travel resumed after a pandemic-induced hiatus. In a normal year there are 7 million applications but in 2020 and 2021 it was 4 million and 5 million respectively. Diana Johnson, the chair of the home affairs select committee, said MPs’ offices were being flooded with requests for help from people struggling to get their passports. Johnson said she was shocked by the volume of applications in the system, particularly the number of people left waiting more than 10 weeks. He said this was “completely unacceptable”. Social media is abuzz with people recounting agonizing waits for passports as the days count down to the summer holidays, with groups dedicated to the issue on sites such as Facebook attracting tens of thousands of members. There, users share tips on how to wade through the red tape surrounding their application amid complaints about the inadequacy of the Passport Office helpline. Growing desperation means people are resorting to queuing at dawn with their holiday tickets at the nearest Passport Office branch or embarking on long road trips to try to get their passport to where it is being processed. At the end of June, the number of applications pending in the system was about 550,000, Greig said. That title was dropping at a rate of about 60,000 a week, and he estimated it would now be in the “low 400,000s,” including newly filed claims. Greig said the agency is struggling with large numbers, with more than 9 million passport applications. “We have received and processed 5 million applications so far, which is more than we processed in all of last year.”
