Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of applications for British passports have been (a) replacements for existing passports and (b) applications for first time passports in the last 12 months.

Applications for a first passport typically represent 10-15% of the passport applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.

Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport from the UK. This includes all application types, including first time applications. Between March and May 2022 approximately 98.5% of UK applications processed were completed within ten weeks.