Passport panic adds to delays
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.MIKE O'BRIEN, the Home Office Minister responsible for immigration, has moved to allay panic amongst holidaymakers afraid they would not be able to renew their passports in time for their vacations. He reconfirmed that people who had to cancel holidays because of administrative errors at the Passport Agency would be compensated.
He also confirmed the Passport Agency is employing motorbike couriers to rush passports to travellers on the verge of missing their holidays because of the growing application backlog.
A Home Office spokesman admitted the agency was getting "very close to the wire" with 530,000 people waiting for passports. But he said 99.99 per cent of applications were being dealt with in time. "We are pulling out all the stops."
The agency to date has had no claims for compensation, despite previous promises to reimburse anyone who misses their holiday as a result of the delays.
The crisis has been caused by a combination of factors. New equipment piloted in the Liverpool and Newport offices last year slowed processing for many months and began to function properly only recently. There is a 40 per cent increase in applications, partly because new rules require children to have passports if they are not on their parents' documents.
And reports of the problems have also created panic. Families are applying well in advance of the usual five weeks, and half of the backlog is for travel in August or beyond. Three hundred extra staff are working seven days a week.
The travel industry says people needing a passport for travel within a week should go in person to their nearest office - London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Peter- borough, Newport or Belfast.
Enormous queues are forming daily but the Agency has no plans to extend opening times to the weekend. A Home Office spokesman said: "That wouldn't necessarily deal with the problem. More staff would have to be turned from processing to deal with them."
Teresa Gorman, Conservative MP for Billericay, said the Agency should be privatised and run by the credit card industry whose spokesmen say they could process applications within four days. "There is no need for this backlog," she said. "It is because we are using a system from the Victorian age. And the people who work in the system do not want to modernise it because they see that as a prelude to job losses."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments