Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications exceeded the standard processing time in 2022.

Of the British passports issued in 2022, 325,748 were from standard UK applications that had taken longer than the current published processing time* guidance of ten weeks. This represents approximately 4.6% of the total passports printed under this service during that period.

His Majesty Passport Office have worked to rectify the issues experienced earlier in 2022 and are now routinely issuing passports within three weeks.

*The processing time includes 2-days for delivery of the passport to the customer.