Why are passports taking so long? Recruitment crisis and backlog of 500,000 documents blamed for delays

A recruitment crisis and a backlog of 500,000 documents are to blame for chaotic delays to passport renewals in the UK, unions have claimed.

Millions of people hoping to travel abroad this summer for the first time since the start of the pandemic have been warned of major disruption to passport renewal applications.

The Government has claimed the backlog is the result of millions of people delaying their applications during the pandemic, with 9.5 million people expected to apply for a new passport this year, up from an average of 6.5 million.

But unions representing passport workers argue that a major Government recruitment crisis is the root cause of the pile-up.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) blamed the backlog on the Passport Office’s “inability” to recruit sufficient permanent staff to meet soaring demand and its over-reliance on poorly-trained agency workers.

It claimed the Passport Office planned to recruit 1,700 new staff members to help deal with the increased demand but that only around 300 had been brought on board so far.

“This has left decisions on passport renewals being completed by agency staff with little training and insufficient oversight,” a PCS spokesperson told i.

The PCS added that the backlog was creating a “collapse in morale and confidence in management”, exacerbating “failures” on the part of Sopra Steria, the contractor providing agency workers.

That in turn has created a backlog of 500,000 passport application documents which have not been uploaded to the system, the union added.

It comes as Boris Johnson threatened to “privatise the arse” off public bodies such as the Passport Office and the DVLA if they do not rapidly clear backlogs.

The Prime Minister told Cabinet members he wanted to tackle the “post-Covid mañana culture” by increasing scrutiny of bodies that were blaming slow services on pandemic-related issues.

He later told TalkTV: “When I see institutions not delivering things like passports or driving licences in a speedy way, these things are quite expensive, it’s £150 to get a new passport, we want action.”

Asked if privatisation of the Passport Office was a genuine possibility, Mr Johnson said he did not care whether an institution was in the private or public sector, he wanted to “deliver value for money” for taxpayers.

However, Wynne Parry, the national officer for the FDA union, rubbished speculation that pandemic habits such as home-working were to blame.

“Delays in processing passport applications have nothing to do with where people work, but are due to the difficulties in recruiting enough staff to cope with the number of applications,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Passport Office said it had advised members of the public “to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport” in the face of unprecedented demand.

However, MPs told the Commons on Monday that the 10-week target had been repeatedly breached as they warned of a “shambles” ahead of the summer holiday season.

Unions also warned of 10-day delays for passports to be printed even after documents have been processed.

One father told how he was left waiting four months for his five-year-old son’s new passport because of the “ridiculous” backlog in processing them.

Mark Sumner, from Ruislip, Hillingdon, told i he begged for help from his local MP, Mr Johnson, but complained that the Prime Minister “did nothing”.

A Government source told i that blame for the hold-ups was also being pinned on Teleperformance, the company that runs the Passport Office’s phone lines.

“If you see most of the individual cases, its people complaining they can’t get through to speak to anyone, no one can tell them what is going on,” the source said.

i understands the Government has brought in Royal Mail and logistics group DHL to help ease the backlog and assist delivery contractor TNT to cope with the unprecedented demand.

While the Passport Office insists TNT is meeting the terms of its contract and delivery times, DHL has increased its capacity by 25 per cent to help ease the strain, while Royal Mail is assisting by sending back non urgent supporting documentation.

However, one Home Office official told i fears were growing that plans were not advanced enough to recruit a contractor to run passport deliveries when TNT’s three-year £77m deal comes to an end in July.

The official said: “There is concern that there needs to be a smooth transition to the new passport contract, whether TNT is selected again or if the deal goes elsewhere. If we’re not ready for that then the work we’re doing now to ease the process may be redundant if we have not got a deal agreed for the next contract to begin in July.”

A spokesperson for FedEx, the ultimate owner of TNT, said it had taken “a number of actions to restore service levels across our Passport Office network, including operational resources, extra team support and additional customer support resources.”

Sopra Steria was contacted for comment.