Crisis over passport backlogs

[C0sta]

According to following link's there is a massive backlog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27783326

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27783700


heresa May has denied claims of a crisis in the passport applications system despite an "unprecedented" demand for passports earlier this year.

Unions have claimed job cuts over the past five years have caused long delays dealing with applications.

The home secretary told MPs there had been a "significant increase" in applications at the start of the year.

But she said the Passport Office had still managed to achieve its customer service targets.

However, Labour said there was a backlog of 500,000 applications yet to be processed.

'State of panic'
Speaking during a debate on the government's plans for the year ahead in Parliament, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said MPs from all sides of the house had been contacted by worried constituents waiting to hear news about their applications and accused Mrs May of "taking her eye off the ball".

People "in a state of panic" about whether they would be able to go on foreign holidays or business trips were having to pay more to get their applications fast-tracked, she added.
But Mrs May said that despite the "unprecedented" rush in new applications and renewals in the first half of the year, 97% of standard applications had been dealt with within three weeks and 99% within four weeks in line with the agency's service standards.

While insisting the government was not complacent, she said there were more people working at the Passport Office now than when the coalition government came to power.

"It is not true to say that the number of staff at the Passport Office has gone down, the number of staff at the Passport Office has gone up," she said.

'Contingency plans'
But she acknowledged prompt handling of passport applications was a matter of concern for people and the situation would be monitored.

"We are continuing to look to see if there are further contingency measures that need to be put into place should we see the significant increase in applications we've seen in the first few months of this year continue."

The Commercial and Public Services Union has claimed the loss of a tenth of the agency's workforce in the past five years and the closure of local offices has contributed to "major problems".

It has threatened strike action unless the management addresses the backlogs and wider issues about terms and conditions and the future of the agency.

The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has called the head of the Passport Office, Paul Pugh, to answer questions about its performance next week.

[Lucapooka]

From Costa's link above:

Expatriates applying for passports from outside the UK have suggested that changes to the way their applications are handled have contributed to delays.In the past, overseas applications were handled by embassy and consulate officials in seven regional processing centres around the world under the direction of the Foreign Office. But between December 2012 and March 2014, responsibility for the application, handling, printing and delivery of overseas passport applications was transferred to the Passport Office in the UK

I applied for my childrens' passports from Brazil in February and waiting time for their eventual arrival was 10 weeks. I was without all of my own documentation during that period. I applied in February and was astonished to see that the price was reduced by 30 pounds about 4 weeks later (not retrospective to my already submitted applications unfortunately). The reduction was due to so-called savings gained by having the processing hub in the UK.

This reduction comes as a result of efficiency savings made over the last 3 years by bringing back the processing and issuing of overseas passports to the UK, whilst maintaining the highest levels of security and customer service

Frankly, this claim of 'maintaining the highest levels of service' is complete nonsense and I would rather they had kept the original price in return for a better service.