olidaymakers face further delays in receiving their passports after a leaked memo from the Passport Office warned of “rock-bottom morale” amongst staff and “creaking” IT systems.
A cache of internal messages sent by officials, obtained by The Times, said that the agency’s systems were not “fit for purpose” – plunging summer holidays into doubt for millions of Britons.
In the messages, staff members warn that the backlog is “the beginning of a lengthy scenario”.
The Home Office has faced demands to reveal when the backlog will be cleared after minister Tom Pursglove admitted earlier this month that a 10-week target for processing applications was “not guaranteed”.
Responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons earlier this week, he said 700 extra staff would be recruited “by the summer” to help.
The Government expects 9.5 million British passport applications to be dealt with in 2022, with Covid restrictions on travel resulting in just four million applications in 2020 and five million in 2021 by comparison.
Staff at the Passport Office have been overwhelmed by the surge in applications, though prime minister Boris Johnson has warned he would “privatise the a***” out of the service and sack officials if the issue is not dealt with.
A whistleblower told The Times that a new digital passport system rolled out at the beginning of the pandemic was not functioning properly, leaving officials using an older, slower method that is “deeply flawed”.
Pressed on whether he would privatise the agency in an interview with TalkTV, Mr Johnson said he wanted the Passport Office to “deliver value and a good service” to the public.
“I am not going to rule anything out. I don’t mind whether it is in the public or the private sector,” he said.
“What I want is for it to deliver value for money and help people’s costs. If you want to go on holiday with your family it can cost hundreds of pounds to get new passports.”
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