Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the projected full-time equivalent staff numbers are for the Passport Office in both peak periods and low season in (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020; and if she will make a statement.

Her Majesty’s Passport Office’s full-time equivalent staff numbers as at end of March 2018, a peak month, were 3643.

For the 2018 low season HM Passport Office have approximately 280 full time equivalents working part year contracts. For these, contract breaks can be invoked, pending considerations around requirements across the wider Home Office.

Numbers for 2019 and 2020 will be subject to Spending Review planning commencing later this year.