Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to reduce the time taken to process passport applications and passport renewal applications.

Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport as more than 5 million people delayed applying due to the pandemic. The vast majority of all passport applications continue to be dealt with well within this service standard.

HM Passport Office has increased its staffing numbers by 650 since April 2021 and is in the process of recruiting a further 550. This has helped to ensure passport applications continue to be processed in higher numbers than ever before. Across March and April 2022, HM Passport Office completed the processing of two million applications.