Today in Parliament, Lucy raised the case of Leah, a Telford constituent who was planning to go on her first family holiday with her husband and two young children, which was booked last year.
Despite applying for a passport renewal in February 2022 and having contacted the passport office over 300 times, Leah’s family have been failed by the Passport Office, who are unlikely to complete the routine renewal in time.
It should not be for desperate passport applicants who risk losing their holidays to have to chase standard renewals because the system has failed. Lucy’s constituent applied well within the reasonable timescales set out by the Passport Office but was still let down.
MPs and their staff of all parties are working around the clock to chase these cases because the Civil Service is unable to process its workload. The Passport Office is not functioning properly and it is failing the public. The lack of people working in the office to receive and process physical documents seems to have been a factor in this case.
It was a small consolation that the Leader of the House has noted progress in recruitment and focus on staffing at the Passport Office.
Lucy Allan MP said:
If my constituent and her family cannot go on holiday because of the failings of the Passport Office I will be seeking financial redress from the Home Office to cover the cost of their holiday and for the stress and inconvenience Leah and her family have been caused through no fault of their own.
There ought to be internal corrective measures in the system to put things right when mistakes are made. The failure of the Civil Service to deliver basic services to the paying public is totally unacceptable and I will continue to raise these failings in Parliament until they are addressed.
