Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time taken by the Passport Office to make a decision on renewal of an expired passport was in each year since 2010.

Her Majesty’s Passport Office does not have specific performance targets relating to new passport applications, as the total time it takes to issue a passport from a first-time applicant depends in part on the speed with which the applicant books and attends their new applicant interview.

In February this year, straightforward UK applications were being processed in an average of 3.1 days, which includes new adult applicants being processed up to the point of being invited to attend an interview. This is well within published service standards.

Her Majesty’s Passport Office does not retain management information in the format requested. New adult and new child application processing times are not monitored separately from renewal passport applications. The table below shows the proportion of UK straightforward applications processed within 15 working days from January 2010 to December 2014.