Steve Rotheram
Main Page: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)Department Debates - View all Steve Rotheram's debates with the Home Office
(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Yvette Cooper
The unfortunate thing is that the message on the Government’s websites and helplines still says that passports will be processed within three weeks. Families are making decisions on that basis: they think it will be done within three weeks and then it is not. It can be delayed by many weeks, and that is a huge problem, because they have made plans and invested in booking holidays.
Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that staff in places such as Liverpool passport office are doing their best with the backlog, and that this is a systemic failure on the part of the Government and not the fault of people who have been put in an intolerable position by staff cuts?
Yvette Cooper
My hon. Friend is right. We understand that staff are working long hours, including weekends, but people are still not getting their passports in time.