Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) adult and (b) child passports her Department has processed in the last twelve months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The number of passport applications received is published quarterly in HM Passport Office’s transparency data. The most recent published data can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-passport-office-data-q4-2022(opens in a new tab)
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2019 to Question 4944 on Passports: Republic of Ireland, how many passport applications from residents of the Republic of Ireland were processed by HM Passport Office in each year since April 2019; and how many such applications were processed by each regional passport office in each of those years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The data requested is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the average waiting times for passport applications since August 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
People are receiving their passports in good time. Between August 2022 and May 2023, 97.4% of customers using the standard UK service received their passport within the published processing timeframe of ten weeks.
Between January and May 2023, 99.4% of customers using the standard UK service received their passport within the published processing timeframe of ten weeks.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to reduce the time taken for passport applications to be processed.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
People are receiving their passports in good time. Between January and May 2023, 99.4% of customers using the standard UK service received their passport within the published processing timeframe of ten weeks.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) passports and (b) other identity documents submitted to the Khartoum Visa Application Centre before 15 April 2023 (i) remain in the Khartoum Visa Application Centre, (ii) are being held by the Nairobi Visa Application Centre, (iii) are being held in countries neighbouring Sudan, (iv) otherwise remain in UK Government custody and (v) have been returned to applicants.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Where our records confirm that a customer’s passport is being held in the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum, UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers that have been issued or refused visa applications in our VAC in Khartoum and offered them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport, that may help support their travel out of Sudan and into a third country.
Where our records show that the passport is held in Nairobi or Pretoria and a named individual (either the applicant or a designated 3rd party) is identified to return the passport to outside of Sudan, the passport can be sent (to the named individual) by courier or for collection from another visa application centre. UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers. For customers that have been able to exit Sudan, processes are in place to re-direct printing of their visa and endorsement on a Form for affixing a visa (FAV) to another VAC location of their choice for collection.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the processing of any passport applications has been paused following the decision in Roehrig v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2023).
Answered by Robert Jenrick
On 24 May we introduced the British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Bill which will resolve the matter raised and allow HMPO to issue passports to these individuals. HMPO have written to affected customers and will keep them updated.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has for UK nationals applying for passports who are unable to obtain full original birth certificates from the countries they were born in.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
His Majesty’s Passport Office engages with customers on a case by case basis where they tell us they are unable to obtain original core supporting documents, including full birth certificates, from their countries of birth. Published HM Passport Office guidance provides advice to customers and passport examiners in considering these cases and what alternative evidence can be accepted.
Supporting documents guidance assists the passport examiner and customer on what original documents we need and may ask for - Getting your first adult passport: What documents you need to apply - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Balance of probability guidance assists passport examiners in exercising discretion and what alternative documentation can be asked for in place of the missing original documents – Balance of probabilities: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Supporting documents not available guidance assists passport examiners to decide which alternative documentation to ask for from customers who are unable to obtain/provide original documentation - Supporting documents not available: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
All of the relevant guidance referenced in this response is available online for customers to read or they can contact the advice line where additional support is needed.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of visa applicants from Sudan whose passports and other travel documents are held in the visa application centre in Khartoum have been contacted by her Department.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all customers who have been issued or refused visa applications in our Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum and offered them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Sudan who had applied for a visa were awaiting a decision on 16 May 2023; and how many of those have submitted their passports to her Department.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office is committed to publishing transparency data on applications by nationality as part of the immigration quarterly statistics release, which is available on the GOV.UK website.
UK Visas and Immigration are in the process of trying to contact customers who have been issued or refused visa applications in our Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum and offering them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications took longer than ten weeks to process in the first quarter of 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Across January to March 2023, 99.6% of standard UK passport applications were processed within ten weeks.