Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken by her Department to process a passport application is; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce that time.

Ahead of unrestricted international travel returning, Her Majesty’s Passport Office prepared extensively to serve an unprecedented number of customers, with 9.5 million British passport applications forecasted throughout 2022.

These preparations, which include the recruitment of 650 additional staff since April 2021 and with plans in place to recruit a further 550 by this summer, have ensured passport applications can be processed in higher numbers than ever before. This was demonstrated in March and April 2022 when HM Passport Office achieved record outputs by completing the processing of two million applications

Since April 2021, HM Passport Office has been advising people to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their passport from the UK. There are currently no plans to change this published timeframe until the expected demand for passports returns closer to normal levels.