Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) permanent, (b) fixed-term, (c) agency and (d) other staff were working in HM Passport Office on 1 April 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The table below shows the breakdown of workers at HM Passport Office on 30 March 2022
| Full-time equivalents April 2022 |
Civil servants (Permanent) | 3205.99 |
Civil servants (Fixed-term Appointment) | 25.54 |
Agency Workers | 1141.52 |
Civil Servants Unpaid (Fixed-term Appointment, Loan & Permanent) | 51.72 |
The table below shows the breakdown of workers at HM Passport Office on 1 January 2022
| Full-time equivalents January 2022 |
Civil servants (Permanent) | 3182.54 |
Civil servants (Fixed-term Appointment) | 2.54 |
Agency Workers | 902.64 |
Civil Servants Unpaid (Fixed-term Appointment, Loan & Permanent) | 96.00 |
The table below shows the breakdown of workers at HM Passport Office on 30 June 2022.
| Full-time equivalents June 2022 |
Civil servants (Permanent) | 3379.63 |
Civil servants(Fixed-term Appointment) | 188.43 |
Agency Workers | 1357.50 |
Civil Servants Unpaid (Fixed-term Appointment, Loan & Permanent) | 70.74 |
The table below shows the breakdown of workers at HM Passport Office on 1st January and 31st March 2022
| Full-time equivalents January 2022 |
Civil servants (Permanent) | 3182.54 |
Civil servants (Fixed-term Appointment) | 2.54 |
Agency Workers | 902.64 |
Civil Servants Unpaid (Fixed-term Appointment, Loan & Permanent) | 96.00 |
Her Majesty’s Passport Office recruited 720 full-time equivalent staff between 1 April and the 22 July. Of this figure, 390 were permanent staff.
Staffing numbers at Her Majesty’s Passport Office has increased by over 1200 since April 2021. Its recruitment will continue to cover any attrition, to ensure the passport service remains fully resourced.
We are committed to ensuring public services are run as efficiently and effectively as possible. Given elevated demand will not continue indefinitely, it is appropriate to have flexible resources available. Therefore, while there has been some recruitment of civil servants, the use of agency workers is appropriate in this context.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Application Management System at HM Passport Office has not yet been replaced with Digital Application Processing.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The full roll out of the Digital Application Processing service has taken longer than originally anticipated. This is due in part to the response required to COVID-19, unexpected complexity involving transforming ways of working, and similar impacts for deliveries on which the service is dependent.
HM Passport Office has transitioned 75-85% of applications to the new Digital Application Process to date. In addition, the availability of two stable systems has enabled HM Passport Office to mitigate some of the risks in processing record numbers of applications during this period of exceptionally high demand.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by the Digital Application Processing development programme in HM Passport Office on 1 November 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of people engaged in developing the Digital Application Service as of 1 November 2021 was 61.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there are penalty costs for continued use of the legacy Application Management System system at HM Passport Office.
Answered by Kevin Foster
No penalty regime exists for the continued use of the legacy Application Management System.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the attrition rate of (a) permanent, (b) full-time equivalent, (c) agency and (d) other staff in HM Passport Office was for the period between 1 April 2021 and 31 December 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This data is not held in a reportable format. However, HM Passport Office staffing numbers have been increased over 1200 since April 2021.
This has delivered the operational capacity needed to process applications in record numbers, at approximately one million each month.
HM Passport Office will continue to recruit in order to cover staff leaving, ensuring it remains fully resourced.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the attrition rate of (a) permanent, (b) full-time equivalent, (c) agency and (d) other staff in HM Passport Office was for the period between 1 January 2022 and 31 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This data is not held in a reportable format. However, HM Passport Office staffing numbers have been increased over 1200 since April 2021.
This has delivered the operational capacity needed to process applications in record numbers, at approximately one million each month.
HM Passport Office will continue to recruit to cover staff leaving, ensuring it remains fully resourced.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) permanent, (b) full-time equivalent, (c) agency and (d) other staff were recruited to HM Passport Office in the period between 1 April 2021 and 31 December 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Staffing numbers at Her Majesty’s Passport Office have increased by over 1200 since April 2021. Its recruitment will continue to cover any attrition, ensuring the passport service remains fully resourced.
We are committed to ensuring public services are run as efficiently and effectively as possible. Given elevated demand will not continue indefinitely, it would be inappropriate to increase resources on a permanent basis. Therefore, while there has been some recruitment of civil servants, most of these additional staff have been agency workers.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the attrition rate was for (a) permanent, (b) fixed-term, (c) agency and (d) other staff in HM Passport Office in the period between 1 April 2022 and 21 July 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This data is not held in a reportable format. However, HM Passport Office staffing numbers have been increased over 1200 since April 2021.
This has delivered the operational capacity needed to process applications in record numbers, at approximately one million each month.
HM Passport Office will continue to recruit to cover staff leaving, ensuring it remains fully resourced.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the end date for using the Application Management System at HM Passport Office.
Answered by Kevin Foster
HM Passport Office forecasts that the Application Management System will be decommissioned five months after Digital Application Processing becomes the sole passport processing system.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) timeline and (b) final implementation date is for Digital Application Processing at HM Passport Office to be fully functional.
Answered by Kevin Foster
HM Passport Office have transitioned 75-85% of applications to the new Digital Application Processing service and will iteratively transition the remainder as new capability is developed and business changes can be implemented.
Plans are based on a balance of the pace of development, the operational ability to manage the magnitude or frequency of change, and the necessity of maintaining service stability under exceptional levels of demand.