MPs to question Passport Office over delays
The head of the Passport Office is to be questioned by MPs over long delays in issuing travel documents that threaten to ruin summer holidays.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has summoned the chief executive Paul Pugh to appear before him next Tuesday after union leaders claimed staff were struggling to deal with a backlog of up to 500,000 applications.
Pugh has insisted there is no backlog, but he admitted there has been an "exceptional early summer demand". In the first five months of the year, 300,000 more applications were received than in the same period last year.
Vaz told a national newspaper: "I have been inundated with letters from people saying they have been waiting and waiting for their passport. This could not be happening at a worse time."
Union leaders blamed the delays on staff shortages following the axing of 300 jobs over the past four years.
Vaz claimed Passport Office staff had been seconded to the Home Office’s immigration section, exacerbating the problem.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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