Hundreds of thousands of passport applicants let down by unacceptable delays, despite planning efforts, says committee

When the last of the UK’s COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted in 2022, the Passport Office (HMPO) received a record number of passport applications. HMPO had anticipated this surge in applications and made plans to prepare for it. But while its staff processed record numbers of applications ultimately its performance let down hundreds of thousands of customers who faced unacceptable delays in receiving their passports. The consequences of these delays included people being unable to travel for family emergencies, losing money spent on holidays and having difficulties proving their identities. 

HMPO has shown a concerning lack of curiosity about the consequences of these delays for its customers and has not put the customer’s perspective at the centre of its decision-making. 

Weak performance by contractors and poor management information exacerbated the problems, as well and the confusion and frustration of customers.  

HMPO estimates that less than half of the ‘missing’ demand for passports from the pandemic materialised in 2022 and is planning for another surge in applications in 2023. But the Committee says it will need to successfully implement its delayed digital transformation programme to perform better – which raises red flags – and be bolder in trying to manage demand rather than just reacting to it. 

Peter Grant MP, PAC lead on this inquiry said: “The level of service our constituents received from the Passport Office last spring and summer was simply unacceptable. Passport Office staff did the best they could but they were fighting a losing battle against antiquated processes and poor planning.  

“These failings resulted in misery for 360,000 people whose passports experienced severe delays. It’s astonishing that even today the Passport Office hasn’t attempted to find out how many of these people had to cancel holidays or were unable to travel for family weddings or other lifetime occasions.  

“This has given the Committee real concern as to whether the Passport Office really understands how much it needs to improve if the public are to get the level of service they’re entitled to expect.”  

Nick Smith MP, PAC lead on this inquiry said: “Despite efforts to prepare for the predicted surge in passport applications, many people were let down. Family holidays and important trips were thrown into jeopardy with many forced to fork out fees to ensure their passports arrived on time.  
“It became the number one casework issue in my office, crowding out other important work as staff strove to help with multiple urgent cases every day. 
“It is disappointing that HMPO’s decision making failed to focus on the customers’ experience during this frustrating time, and I’m concerned that a failure to upgrade their clunky system may result in similar scenes this year. 

Conclusions and recommendations 

7.      While we commend the efforts of its staff, HMPO delivered an unacceptable level of service to many of its customers in 2022. HMPO had predicted and prepared for the surge in passport applications when people were able to travel again following the lifting of COVID-19 travel restrictions. But despite this planning, too many people faced significant delays in receiving their passports. Between January and September, approximately 95% of customers received their passports within the advertised 10 weeks. However, some 360,000 customers had to wait more than 10 weeks. HMPO blamed the higher than anticipated demand in May 2022 for the delays that customers experienced, but the actual total demand in 2022 was lower than it forecasted. HMPO’s digital system was unable to handle the surge in demand and the full range of applications, and so 134,000 applications were moved to the less efficient, paper-based system. As a result of the delays, some customers faced not being able to attend family emergencies, not being able to gain employment, losing holidays, or not being able to prove their identities.  

Recommendation 1A: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out how HMPO’s experience in 2022 has informed its preparations for 2023 and what actions it has taken as a result. 

Recommendation 1B: The Department should report back to us within six months detailing how effective the actions above have proved in maintaining an acceptable level of service in HMPO. 

8.      The Department has demonstrated a worrying lack of curiosity about the human impact of HMPO’s poor service or who its customers were. HMPO is unable to say how many people were forced to cancel their travel plans because of their passports being delayed, and has not done any work to find out what this number is. It similarly cannot know the number of people who were unable to attend family emergencies or take up employment and does not link passport applications from, for example, a family group. The handling of communication with customers who had applications in progress was also poor. In some cases customers had to call repeatedly and were hung up on when they did get through. The Department received 11,400 letters from MPs regarding constituents’ passport applications as many customers gave up trying to contact HMPO directly. HMPO does not routinely pay compensation for delays because it instructs customers not to book travel without a valid passport. While it did offer refunds for customers whose applications were delayed despite paying for HMPO’s express service, it was unable to say how much it had paid out in total. HMPO recognised that customers who complained were passed between too many staff in different parts of HMPO, and is establishing a new ‘resolution hub’ to improve this and resolve cases first-time. However, it does not expect this to be ready in time for the anticipated 2023 surge in demand. 

Recommendation 2: The Department should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out how it will place a greater emphasis on the experience of HMPO’s customers in the future. HMPO should also collect better data on who is applying for a passport, to provide information to improve its overall service. 

9.      Weaknesses in HMPO’s understanding of how applications moved through its systems caused frustration and confusion for customers. HMPO experienced problems with its management information. For example, HMPO has moved 134,000 applications from its digital system to its legacy paper-based system as its digital system was unable to handle the surge in demand or the full range of applications. These applications should have been moved to the front of the queue for processing, but this did not happen. Instead, transferred applications were treated as new cases and the number of weeks it had taken to process someone’s passport application was reset to zero. As a result, HMPO did not know how long the customer had actually been waiting for their passport and customers were incorrectly informed that their applications had only arrived recently. HMPO did not plan for the number of applications that needed to transfer to the paper-based system and staff were not sufficiently trained to handle the differences between the two systems. HMPO admitted that parts of the passport application process did not work as intended, but it took far too long to identify and fix the issues. These problems compounded delays and undermined customers’ confidence in HMPO.  

Recommendation 3: The Department should, as part as its Treasury Minute response, explain how it will address weaknesses in management information to ensure HMPO has a real-time, end-to-end view that allows it to identify and resolve issues quickly and efficiently. 

10.  Despite HMPO’s work to prepare for increased demand for passports, poor performance by contractors exacerbated issues for customers. We are concerned that in some cases it was clear that the performance of external contractors was deteriorating as early as March 2022. Sopra Steria, responsible for opening and scanning paper applications and supporting documentation, did not achieve its service levels targets for five months in 2022. Similarly, Teleperformance, responsible for the customer support telephone line, did not meet its targets for four months and caused significant concerns for customers who were unable to get help. HMPO accepted that some of the issues with contractors, especially at the end of the process, were its fault, as it had not adequately prepared them for the expected volumes of work. HMPO recognised that some customers have lost confidence in its handling of passport application and is bringing in a second contractor to handle customer calls alongside Teleperformance. 

Recommendation 4: The Department should, as part as its Treasury Minute response, set out the steps it has taken to ensure the problems it experienced with its contractors will not happen again. 

11.  We remain to be convinced that HMPO’s digital transformation programme will be completed by 2025. Many of HMPO’s difficulties meeting the demand in 2022 stemmed from, or were exacerbated by, issues with its transformation programme. The future of HMPO’s operations rely on successfully completing the programme, but it is already delayed. HMPO’s plans to complete it in 2025 appear ambitious, particularly given the Department’s track record of delivering digital change and the Red rating awarded by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. Furthermore, HMPO’s plans for the future of its legacy paper-based system are unclear. HMPO wants to maintain the capacity to use paper-based applications as some customers may not be able to apply online, but its contract for the paper-based system’s data storage expires in 2024. The Department is currently in discussions to extend the contract. 

Recommendation 5: The Department should set out, as part of its Treasury Minute response, what actions it has taken to address each of the recommendations from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s August 2022 review. It should also explain what contingencies they are putting in place should there be further delays to the digital transformation programme.  

12.  We are disappointed by the Department and HMPO’s lack of ambition in their plans to meet demand for passports in 2023 and beyond. HMPO estimates that there are still three million customers who did not renew or apply for passports during the pandemic and expects a level of demand in 2023 similar to 2022. This pattern of demand will re-emerge every 10 years as passports expire. HMPO also believes there may be a more fundamental shift in customer application patterns following the pandemic, with people renewing their passports only when they plan to use them, rather than renewing when they expire. HMPO has conducted reviews to learn lessons from its experience in 2022 and prevent issues in the future, but we are not convinced how successful this will be given that it experienced similar surges in demand and service issues in 1999 and 2014. It plans to rely on surge teams to manage spikes in demand by moving people flexibly between roles. In doing so, HMPO is focused on coping with demand, rather than being bold in trying to manage it. While it is important that HMPO ensure they have the correct processes in place, we are increasingly concerned that this focus has distracted them from developing a clear strategy for the timely delivery of passports moving forward, and what they will prioritise when there are surges in demand.  

Recommendation 6: The Department should set out, as part of its Treasury Minute response, how it will better manage demand for passports in future and what outcomes it will use to measure its performance.