The Passport Office is to be brought under Home Office control and made accountable to ministers, the Home Secretary has announced.
The changes mean the Passport Office’s chief executive Paul Pugh will be replaced.
The move to the Home Office will take effect from 1 October.
The decision follows a summer of chaos as delays at the Passport Office threatened thousands of summer holidays.
Some holidaymakers failed to receive their documents in time due to a backlog in applications.
At its peak in late June, there were 537,663 outstanding applications.
Home Secretary Theresa May introduced a number of emergency measures to tackle the backlog, which is now around 80,000.
