Leader of the House

Ian Mearns Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2022 Ministerial Corrections

[Mark Spencer]

The Government are getting on with meeting the challenges and solving the problems that we face. We said that we would recruit over 20,000 more police officers, and we have already recruited 13,500. We are investing a huge amount of cash—£37 billion—in helping people with the challenges of the cost of living.

The following is an extract from Business of the House questions in the Chamber on 30 June 2022.

[Ian Mearns]

I received a letter from Her Majesty’s Passport Office yesterday in response to 17 different inquiries about missing passports on behalf of my constituents. Some of these 17 answers date back to inquiries submitted in March. We are still getting inquiries, on an almost daily basis, from constituents who are worried about their missing passports. The situation does not seem to have improved since I first raised it in the House back in late February or early March. Can we have a statement from the Home Secretary on what is being done to improve the situation? Whatever has been done already is not working.

[Mark Spencer]

I am glad to see the hon. Gentleman back in his place, and I hope his slipped disc is now better. I know how heavy those RMT banners can be, so he should be careful when carrying them.

On the challenges for the hon. Gentleman’s constituents in getting their passports, I hope he will recognise that the Home Office has recruited another 550 staff, with another 600 to come very soon.

[Official Report, 30 June 2022, Vol. 717, c. 457.]

Letter of correction from the Leader of the House:

An error has been identified in the response I gave to the hon. Member for Gateshead (Ian Mearns).

The correct response should have been: