Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the size of the backlog of passport applications was within HM Passport Office for each of the four-week periods where data has been reported since 1 January 2022.

Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport as more than 5 million people delayed applying due to the pandemic. The vast majority of all passport applications continue to be dealt with well within 10 weeks.

Her Majesty’s Passport Office carries work in progress across the year as part of normal operational planning, and approximately 250,000 passport applications are being processed each week.