Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the availability of appointments for priority services at the Passport Office before 6 May 2023.

Appointments continue to be offered throughout this period of industrial action, and new appointments are released every day. As is always the case, for anyone that requires a passport on compassionate grounds for urgent travel, our services are available.

HM Passport Office has processed almost 2.6 million applications up to the end of March 2023, with 99.6% of standard UK applications being processed within ten weeks and over 94.6% being processed within three weeks.