In the House of Commons today, she promised to tackle the backlog, giving overseas applicants an extra year on their current passport, and scrapping some urgent renewal charges.
People with an ‘urgent need to travel’ will get their applications fast-tracked free of charge, although it’s still unclear whether ‘urgent’ refers to family emergencies or holidays in Marbella.
May said that the Passports Agency is trying to get applications processed without compromising security but added that there’s no “big bang, single solution”.
The passport bottleneck is being blamed on poorly-timed system changes and the highest demand for 12 years, while local passport offices have closed, and the agency has lost 10% of its workforce within the last five years.
Amid complaints to MPs, calls of crisis and a leaked photo of thousands of applications stacked in a hallway, Ms May has been accused of having absolutely no idea what is going on.
Usually we’d send packing, but she’ll have to check the expiry on her passport first…
Image credit: Getty
