Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the Passport Office to ensure it continues to meet the deadlines for applications to be processed and returned during the holiday period.

Her Majesty's Passport Office looks to ensure that adequate resources are in place to meet demand whilst ensuring that resources are proportionate to that demand. Contingencies are in place to coincide with peak periods of demand e.g. school breaks and summer holidays.

This primarily involves staff working overtime but also includes, as required, the redeployment of resources to support passport application examination staff and to assist in the handling of customer contact.