Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the (a) delays at HM Passport Office and (b) impact of those delays on people in Wales.

We have seen unprecedented demand following the return of unrestricted international travel, with 9.5 million passport applications forecasted for 2022, an increase of roughly 35% on pre-pandemic application numbers.

Nonetheless, 98.5% of UK applications were completed within the published processing time of ten weeks between March and May, with approximately 250,000 passport applications being processed each week.

To help meet increased demand, HM Passport Office have recruited 850 additional staff since April 2021, with a further 350 arriving during this summer. Passport applications from Wales may be handled at all Passport Office processing sites throughout the UK.