Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the longest amount of time it has taken for the Passport Office to process a passport application in the last three years.

A British passport cannot be issued until all checks are satisfactorily completed. These checks include those intended to protect the passport system against fraud and misrepresentation.

If further information is required to enable an application to be progressed in light of these checks, then it will take longer to conclude as a British Passport will not be issued until HM Passport Office is satisfied of the applicant’s identity and that they are entitled to hold one.