To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made in clearing the backlog of passport applications and renewals; and what proportion of applications are taking longer to process than the advised 10 week processing time.
Answered on
22 November 2021
Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 5 million people have delayed applying for a passport.
With the potential demand for passports higher than ever before, since April 2021 passport applicants have been advised to plan to wait up to 10 weeks before they receive their passport. There are no plans currently to change the advice about how long to allow when applying for a passport until the level of potential demand returns closer to normal levels.
HM Passport Office continues to process application within this time period. Between August and October, including the most complex cases, over 98% of UK applications were processed within ten weeks. Typical processing times for applications completed in the previous week are published on GOV.UK.