The Passport Office knew a year ago that applications would surge by as much as 350,000 this summer, but appear to have been unable to hire extra staff to cope with the predicted higher demand.
The revelation that the Passport Office knew of the likely surge in demand appears to contradict claims by David Cameron and the home secretary, Theresa May, that there was an unprecedented and unexpected surge in demand possibly caused by the economic recovery.
Paul Pugh, head of the Identity and Passport Service, estimated in a report published on 4 July last year there would be an extra 350,000 applications to UK-based centres in 2014 (pdf). This was because of overseas embassies shutting their passport desks and transferring operations to Britain, he said.
The surge was caused by the closure of processing centres in Paris, Düsseldorf, Madrid, Hong Kong, Pretoria, Washington DC and Wellington. It was part of a plan to save £20m a year and bring 120 jobs to England and Northern Ireland.
When summoned to the House of Commons on Thursday, May said the Passport Office was receiving 350,000 more applications for passport applications and renewals than normal for this time of year.
Pugh wrote in the foreword to the annual report of the Passport Office: "We continued to transfer responsibility for processing passport applications from British nationals overseas, in partnership with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In December 2012 we received our first applications directly from our customers overseas. This process will be complete in 2014 when IPS will be providing passport services for approximately 350,000 additional customers worldwide annually."
On Thursday, May told the House of Commons that she was dropping the fast-tracking fee for applications and that people renewing UK passports from overseas would be given a 12-month extension to their existing passports. The list of emergency measures to ease the backlog also included an increase in the number of examiners and call handlers by a further 200 on top of the 900 staff already reassigned to deal with the applications. And she said those applying for passports overseas on behalf of their children would be given emergency travel documents.
The home secretary said she was considering stripping the Passport Office of its agency status and bringing it under the direct control of the Home Office.
