Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff she expects to leave the employment of the Passport Office in the year from August 2014.

Her Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) is recruiting over 1,100 FTE staff to frontline posts. Over 620 staff are already in post or appointed and the remaining staff will be recruited by around the end of the current financial year.

The majority of staff are being recruited on two year fixed contracts with an option to convert to permanent positions at the end of that period. Just over 250 staff are employed on fixed term contracts of between three and eleven
months and around a further 30 will be recruited on the same terms. In addition, HMPO will be making use of around 170 temporary staff, either on a seasonal basis or by insourcing from existing suppliers. Recruitment agencies
have been engaged in the recruitment programme. The recruitment levels are based on forecast demand for 2015 and 2016 and take into account existing staff exiting the organisation or moving on promotion to other than frontline posts.