In Home Office Oral Parliamentary Questions, Dame Caroline Dinenage asked for assurances from the Home Office are addressing the significant delays in processing and renewing passport applications.
The Home Office has stated that renewal of British passports is at all-time high. Prior to the pandemic, the average wait time was around three weeks for a passport renewal, however, the Covid-19 virus caused a significant backlog, and this combined with an increased demand for international holidays, has meant that processing times can now take up to ten weeks, according to HM Passport Office.
Caroline said:
“It appears that travellers are not only experiencing severe delays at passport control but also processing passport applications and renewals in the first place.
“While I fully understand that the Minister has set out the pressures that staff are facing, can you please reassure me that backlogs will be addressed and airport issues will be sorted out before my constituents go on their summer holidays?”
The Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, Minister of State responded saying:
“Thank you Mr Speaker, I do want to reassure my Friend that despite the fact there has been this surge in demand as she’d expect considering the patterns that we have seen over the past couple of years with international travel returning, this will be something that my Hon Friend who leads on passport issuing & making sure that the necessary capacity is there.”
