Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to reimburse people who have had to pay to upgrade to the premium one-day service to secure a (a) new or (b) renewed passport; and if she will make a statement.

There are no plans to reimburse customers who choose to use the four hour
premium service.

On 12 June, the Home Secretary announced in the House of Commons that where
people have an urgent need to travel, and their application has been with Her
Majesty's Passport Office for longer than the standard processing time of three weeks
through no fault of their own, they will be able to upgrade their application
without charge. After their application has been through the proper checks, the
processing, printing and delivery of the new passport will be fast-tracked for
free. To qualify, customers must be booked to travel within the next 7 days.
Customers will be asked to provide details – such as flight numbers and the
name of the travel company – to confirm their travel plans.

This policy came into effect immediately after being announced and will be
available until further notice. This policy will not be applied
retrospectively.