Passport Office should refund holidaymakers, say MPs

Passport applicants who paid extra for a ‘fast track’ service to avoid their documents being held up in the backlog over the summer should be refunded, say MPs.

The Home Affairs Committee said some of those who used the Passport Office’s premium service to avoid being unable to travel had been exploited.

The government blamed a surge in demand, but said it was working to ensure there was no repeat of this summer’s fiasco.

At one point, the number of outstanding passport applications reached more than half a million and passport offices were unable to cope, leaving documents piled in storerooms.

The Passport Office took on extra staff, extended opening hours, increased overtime and redeployed workers from elsewhere. Applicants with imminent overseas trips were advised to use the Fast Track service, which costs more than £30 extra.

Although the Passport Office announced in July that it would waive the charge for those who had applied more than three weeks earlier and had confirmed departures within seven days, many others had already paid to upgrade.

The Home Affairs Committee said the government should have offered free upgrades to those who suffered delays earlier in the summer and had had to pay extra themselves.

It suggested setting an earlier cut-off point, with those upgrading to the fast-track service as early as 1 May being refunded their extra costs.

The committee’s chairman, Labour MP Keith Vaz, said: "The state should not be exploiting its own citizens by making a profit on what is a basic right.

"A British passport, an essential document for travel by British citizens, had become the subject of emergency statements and crisis management."

The committee also said the Passport Office said it should lose its agency status, awarded in May last year, and be brought back under direct ministerial control "following this appalling series of failures".

But Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said the Passport Office had ‘faced unprecedented demand in 2014’.

"In response to this significant increase in demand the home secretary introduced a series of measures to ensure that passports could be received by people in time for them to travel on their summer holidays," he said.

"This action has had a significant impact, reducing HMPO’s outstanding number of applications from a peak of nearly 550,000 in June to around 90,000 today."