BRITISH ministers have been forced to intervene in the working of the chaotic Passport Office after it emerged managed ordered staff to relax security checks on applicants for British passports from abroad.
The Guardian revealed that it was in an effort to reduce a backlog of at least 30,000 applications.
Passport applicant renewals in Turkey are being warned they face an average of nine weeks due to the processing now taking place in the UK rather than in Germany.
The Guardian said that a briefing note sent to staff told Passport Office workers to drop checks on countersignatories, as well as requirements for evidence of addresses and letters of confirmation from employers and accountants.
An hour after the leaked document was published on the Guardian’s website on Wednesday night, the Home Office issued a terse statement saying that ministers had no knowledge of the instructions and had ordered managers at the Passport Office to withdraw it immediately.
Later Home Secretary Theresa May announced measures to help clear the backlog in passport applications – and scrapped charges for urgent renewals.
People renewing their UK passports from overseas will be given a 12 month extension to their existing passport.
Those applying for passports overseas on behalf of their children will be given emergency travel documents.
Labour said Mrs May had lost her grip and called for an apology.
Mrs May was being grilled on the situation by Labour’s Yvette Cooper in the Commons – three days after denying claims of a crisis.
She said the government would do “everything it can” while maintaining security to “make sure people get their passports in time” – but there was no “big bang, single solution”.
People with an “urgent need to travel” will be fast-tracked through the system free of charge, she told MPs. They are currently charged up to £128.
She also confirmed that responsibility for dealing with applications for passports overseas was changed from consulates and embassies to an online system based in the UK in March.
This change had been made to provide better value for money and to ensure more “consistency” of service and security checks, she said.
Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson called the timing of this change – at the pre-summer peak applications season – “idiotic”.