HM Passport Office Backlog

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. A Government who fail to plan are a Government who plan to fa...

At the risk of making the shadow Minister come back to the actual topic of the debate, which is p...

On the causes of this, it is absolutely vital to recognise that the lack of investment in our pub...

I am sure the hon. Gentleman will share my dismay at learning that a professional seafarer was fo...

The right hon. Lady is absolutely right. There are holidays, weddings and funerals, but there are...

I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say. This is an important issue. We want to ge...

I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on getting those passports. I have to say that he was one...

Does my hon. Friend agree that much of the system is broken, because people are phoning up for ap...

I thank my hon. Friend. What an utterly absurd position to be in that somebody who lives and work...

The point that the hon. Member is making is the most significant one we should make here today. Y...

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. The cost of this issue is not just in broken-hearted families ...

Like Members from all parts of the House, my office has been inundated with queries from constitu...

Is it not extraordinary that the Government’s response to the crisis we are seeing is to cut the ...

My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of fast-track applications. My constituency office, li...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He is referring to the two main companies, I think, which are...

Like the hon. Member, I have had examples of constituents who have had cases and been delayed, an...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. It is nice to know that his friend the Minister ...

It is an absolute pleasure to respond to what we just heard. From the motion and the opening spee...

In general, the hard-working staff at passport offices, including Glasgow, who have been really g...

I thank the hon. Member for her comments and join her in paying tribute to the staff at the Glasg...

Will the Minister give way?

Even though this is not an Adjournment debate, I will give way to the hon. Member.

I, too, put on the record my thanks to the Minister and his staff for their responses, and to the...

I join the hon. Member in paying tribute to the staff at the Belfast passport office, who are wor...

Will the Minister give way?

I will give way one final time and then make some progress.

I thank the Minister for giving way. Will he please tell us how big the backlog at the Passport O...

We continue to work through a large number of applications. As said, we advise customers to allow...

Will the Minister give way?

Not at the moment.

In April 2021, guidance was therefore changed to clearly advise customer...

Will the Minister give way?

In a moment.

Across March, April and May 98.5% of the applications processed were completed...

I will give way first to the hon. Member for St Albans (Daisy Cooper) and then come to those on m...

I thank the Minister for giving way. He mentioned the 10-week period during which most passport a...

If the application has been outstanding for over 10 weeks and travel has been booked, we can expe...

I will now give way again, as promised, this time to my colleague from Bournemouth, my right hon....

I am grateful to the Minister. I should first declare an interest: I am a US dual national and ha...

I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of Passport Office staff have been back in the o...

Will the Minister give way?

The hon. Gentleman has already intervened once so I will continue.

HM Passport Office endea...

I am afraid the Minister’s previous answer to the backlog question did not travel across the Cham...

We continue to get through a very large number of applications. We get through 1 million a month,...

I congratulate the Minister on his diligence in tackling this difficult problem. Will he continue...

That intervention serves as a reminder of the effectiveness delivered by my hon. Friend and the w...

I want to put on the record my thanks to the Belfast office, which went over and above what could...

The simple answer is that, yes, more staff are being recruited but I will address that in more de...

This issue has undoubtedly caused a great deal of distress, with many people having had to wait u...

I thank my hon. Friend; the team who dealt with the application will greatly appreciate her givin...

Will the Minister give way?

I turn to priority services, for which appointments are released three weeks in advance. Although...

Will the Minister give way?

There is, though, one area of the service that we recognise as being not up to standard: the advi...

Will the Minister give way?

Will the Minister give way?

I will take an intervention from the SNP.

I have a constituent who had three attempted deliveries from TNT, but he was not informed and did...

First, the constituent made the right choice by contacting his Member of Parliament, who I know w...

Will the Minister give way?

The failure of the telephone line means that constituents have waited longer than they should hav...

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I hope that it is a point of order and not just disturbing the debate.

Could you give some advice, Madam Deputy Speaker, on whether there is a difficulty with sightline...

First, that is not a point of order. Secondly, I am sure that the Minister is well aware of the c...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for helping to advise the Chamber, as always. I have heard mutte...

rose—

I will happily take an intervention from the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson).

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way to me. Much of the discussion so far has been about ...

The hon. Member will appreciate that, as I am a Home Office Minister, I should not comment on mat...

The routes that colleagues can use to get in contact should not be used to expedite a passport ap...

Will the Minister give way?

I am also grateful to colleagues who are giving advice to their constituents in these circumstanc...

I thank the Minister for giving way and echo his comments on the staff who are working hard to tu...

I have already outlined several things. We are recruiting more staff, we have opened a new inquir...

Will the Minister give way?

I pay tribute to HM Passport Office, where people are working hard—many have been working at week...

Very briefly, will the Minister give way?

Go on, then.

Hooray!

I am very grateful to the Minister for eventually giving way. My intervention will not be that br...

Well, what I am happy to keep confirming is about the massive output, the hard work of HMPO, and ...

rose—

To let others speak, I need to come towards winding up, but I will give way briefly to my hon. Fr...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. He has described the current situation. Will he a...

Look, no one wants to be in a situation where we have a service level of 10 weeks. We would much ...

That was quite an interesting listen, I have to say, certainly from the SNP Front Bench. I am str...

I rise to oppose the motion and speak in defence of the excellent Minister, with whom I have had ...

The provision that the hon. Gentleman has just listed is testament to the Government’s failure to...

I say politely to the hon. Lady that, whatever her briefing document tells her to say about the G...

I am curious about the hon. Member’s response. The Government have announced that they intend to ...

I am perfectly aware of the facts. Nowhere does it say that we want to reduce the civil service p...

In all his contributions, the Minister has not once admitted what the backlog is. Maybe the hon. ...

I am absolutely confident that as we speak, with all the action that the Minister has taken, the ...

In the city of Durham, Her Majesty’s Passport Office sits on the banks of the Wear. Its glass fra...

The Government are letting down thousands of families across our country. The Passport Office is ...

I call Florence Eshalomi.

2.16 pm

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

“I have now applied twice to renew his passport at £55 on ...

It is an honour and a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall (Florence Eshalom...

I begin by paying tribute to all the staff at the passport office in Newport, which is located in...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) on securing such an impor...

The Prime Minister said last week that passports would be delivered within six weeks. When the Ho...

I am convinced that every Member has received letters, emails and telephone calls from their cons...

I will start with the quote from our hon. Friend the shadow Minister that my hon. Friend the Memb...

Order. Before I call the next speaker, I offer colleagues a gentle reminder that it is important ...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

This passport chaos is, to borrow the phrase used recently...

Order. Just another reminder that we are talking about passports rather than slightly wider issue...

Passport delays are causing immense stress to my constituents. This problem was predictable, but ...

I rise to support today’s motion on the Order Paper. As we have heard, the delays at the Passport...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Over the past six weeks 26 families have contacted ...

I completely agree, and I will shortly illustrate my hon. Friend’s point with cases from my own c...

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate, because Newport West is proudly home t...

My hon. Friend talks about the staff at Newport passport office. I would like to pay tribute not ...

My hon. Friend makes an important point perfectly, and I will of course take that message back to...

Like every other MP who has spoken in the debate and, I suspect, every other MP across the Benche...

My hon. Friend is telling the stories of so many of our hon. Friends. I could not be here earlier...

My hon. Friend makes an important point, speaking to the variety of reasons why people have to un...

I need to emphasise once again how important it is for colleagues to come back for the wind-ups i...

While 98.5% of UK passport applications are being processed within 10 weeks, it is clear that som...

My constituent went to Durham passport office to collect his passport only to be told that there ...

Order. This is the Minister’s winding-up speech; it is not the place for a new speech. I let the ...

I think the hon. Lady will appreciate that it is impossible—literally impossible—for me to commen...