Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the amount of information provided in respect of waiting times for passport applications prior to people starting applications, including when applications from multiple children are interlinked.
Due to COVID-19, over 5 million people delayed applying for a British passport during 2020 and 2021. In preparation for the demand for international travel returning, since April 2021 we have been advising people to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their passport. This remains the case.
Until recently, Her Majesty’s Passport Office published additional guidance showing the typical processing times for applications that had been completed in the previous week. However, customer feedback indicated these timeframes were being conflated with the need to allow up to ten weeks and, in response, additional guidance is no longer published.