The Home Affairs Committee has written to the Home Secretary
calling for improvements to how the Passport Office manages
applications. The Committee took evidence from the Director of
Passports, Citizenship, and Civil Registration at HM Passport
Office, courier TNT and travel journalist Simon Calder on
Wednesday.
The letter expresses extreme disappointment that Teleperformance,
the contractor running the Passport Office’s helpline, declined
to attend the hearing to answer for their poor performance. Calls
to the helpline routinely go unanswered for several hours and the
service is cited as a source of frustration for those attempting
to apply for a passport.
It urges the Home Office to review the terms of its contract with
Teleperformance to ensure improved performance and avoid
applicants being left in the dark. Call operators should have
access to useful information about an individual’s specific case
so as to provide meaningful, timely and useful advice. Successful
applicants should be notified that their passport is on its way
to avoid needless anxiety and reduce call volumes. At busy
periods, advice should be published on the Passport Office
website, so urgent cases know who to contact.
The Committee additionally calls on the Home Secretary to make
changes to how the Passport Office operates to avoid a repeat of
the current problems. It recommends more pro-active communication
to manage demand, for example contacting customers during periods
of low demand to encourage early applications. The digital
application system should be modified to enable family groups to
be linked and processed at the same time, avoiding gaps of
several weeks between individual passports arriving.
Given problems in attempting to book priority services, the Home
Office should monitor the number of people attempting to access
the service and consider setting minimum targets for the number
of slots available each day. Consideration should also be given
to offering extensions of up to six months to passports nearing
expiry under certain circumstances.
Chair's comments
Chair of the Home Committee, said:
“It is completely unacceptable that anyone taking public money to
run a public service should attempt to avoid scrutiny. To do so
when that service is in disarray is even worse. Thousands of
people across the country have been left exasperated at the
difficulty in getting an answer, let alone meaningful
information, in their attempts to call the Passport Helpline and
this is simply not good enough.
We have written to the Home Office to call for improvements to
how the Passport Office is run that should allow them to better
manage demand and avoid a repeat of such problems in the future.
Most importantly it needs to improve how it communicates with
people. Problems coping with a surge in demand is one thing, but
making it so difficult for applicants to get help or even
understand what is going on is really poor.
Given the Home Secretary’s commitment to appear before the
Committee on 7 September. We expect a response to our proposals
by the end of August.”
