Passport delays: MPs call for compensation
Passport applicants who paid £30 extra for a fast-track service because of severe delays should get their money back, MPs say.
During the summer, the Passport Office struggled to cope with a backlog in outstanding applications that reached 550,000 – forcing some people to miss their holidays.
Contingency measures brought in meant that those planning to travel within seven days, whose applications had been with the Passport Office for longer than three weeks, were offered a free upgrade to the fast-track service.
A regular passport application costs £72.50, while the fast-track service costs £103.
Now the home affairs select committee is calling for others who paid for the fast-track service, before the measures were introduced, to be compensated. The Home Office is considering the committee’s demand.
‘Summer of chaos’
Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: “This has been a summer of chaos at the Passport Office. The state should not be exploiting its own citizens by making a profit on what is a basic right.”
Mr Vaz ridiculed Passport Office managers, saying they would be “unlikely to survive to the final round of The Apprentice”.
He is calling for the Passport Office to lose its agency status and be brought back under direct Home Office control.
Home Office Minister James Brokenshire said: “Her Majesty’s Passport Office faced unprecedented demand in 2014.
“Over 5 million passports have been issued so far this year. In response to this significant increase in demand the home secretary introduced a series of measures to ensure that passports could be received by people in time for them to travel on their summer holidays.
“This action has had a significant impact, reducing HMPO’s outstanding number of applications from a peak of nearly 550,000 in June to around 90,000 today.”
Mr Brokenshire said two reports had been commissioned into the workings of the Passport Office and the Home Office would announce its response soon.