Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of live passport applications currently awaiting approval by HM Passport Office.

Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport as more than 5 million people delayed applying due to the pandemic. The vast majority of all passport applications continue to be dealt with well within 10 weeks.

Her Majesty’s Passport Office carries work in progress across the year as part of normal operational planning, and approximately 250,000 passport applications are being processed each week.