Published on: 02nd June 2022
Reading time: Approx 4 mins

About the UK summer Passport Renewal Delays, the Home Office has responded angrily to the estimates that 1 million vacationers may be forced to abandon their travel plans this summer due to slowed-down passport processing. According to statistics, a backlog in passport applications might cost Britons £1.1 billion this summer, leaving holidaymakers with no choice but to cancel flights and accommodations.

Based on present-day reports on the UK Summer Passport Renewal delays, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) estimates that just 50% of travellers will successfully and timely receive their renewed passports. “Data from the VisitBritain Covid-19 Consumer Sentiment Tracker shows that more than 2 in 5 people are planning an overseas trip in the coming 12 months,” the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said. “Assuming that passport holders are somewhat more likely to have travel plans than the population as a whole and that a quarter of those will have made a booking leaves just under one million holidaymakers at risk due to the delays”.

Travelers should submit their passport applications at least 10 weeks before their intended departure date, according to the Passport Office, a department of the Home Office. As a result of people delaying applications, the number of valid UK passports plummeted by more than 2.5 million in the first two calendar years of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of last year, there were 48.9 million passports in circulation, 2.6 million fewer than at the end of 2019.

This is a stark contrast to the two years prior to the pandemic, when the number of passports climbed from 50 million in December 2017 to 51.5 million two years later.

The delays, according to the Passport Office, are not due to a backlog created by the COVID-19 outbreak, but rather to “exceptional demand” from Britons who have been putting off applying for new passports because of the restrictions on overseas travel. The Passport Office expects 9.5 million British passport applications in 2022, and has stated that it handled over one million new applications in March alone, the biggest monthly number on record.

Last week, a senior government source claimed that, Prime Minister, Mr. Boris Johnson threatened to privatise the department of Passport Office if they failed to clear the pending passport renewal work, that is jeopardising the nation’s summer holiday plans.

“When I see institutions not delivering things like passports or driving licences in a speedy way, we want action” said Mr. Boris Johnson. The Home Office has labelled the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) report “completely ridiculous”, describing the figures as “bogus”. The Home Office said in a statement, “These are unverified and nonsensical figures which are not grounded in reality and to treat them as credible is completely ridiculous”.

More than 90% of applications made in the period from January to March this year were processed in 6 weeks, it said. “The vast majority of passport applications are being processed within the 10-week service standard we have had in place, and clearly advertised, since April 2021”. “Anyone who needs to renew their passport ahead of the summer is encouraged to do so now,” it added.

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