Travellers whose journeys are jeopardised because their passports are about to expire could soon win a reprieve.
MPs on the home affairs select committee have asked the home secretary to “examine the feasibility of offering an emergency service for passport extensions”.
Dame Diana Johnson, the Labour chair, wrote to Priti Patel after the committee investigated delays in issuing passports.
An estimated 55,000 passport applications have been in the HM Passport Office system for more than 10 weeks, the deadline stipulated for delivery.
The committee suggests an extension of up to six months could be applied to existing passports for people travelling within the next week “on the condition they physically attend a passport office and could be subject to an additional fee”.
In the 1980s, when a backlog of passports threatened holidays, applicants could simply turn up at the main passport office – then in Petty France, Westminster – and get an on-the-spot extension of six months.
In the analogue era, it was an easy matter to apply an official stamp to extend a passport. But since travel documents became “machine readable” – with two lines of letters, digits and chevrons at the foot of the photo page – the process would face technical issues.
Because of the conditions negotiated by the UK in the Brexit treaty, any extension for adult passports would have no effect within the EU – British passports cannot be 10 years or older on the day of arrival in a member state.
But the concept could benefit travellers heading for any other country – some of which require six months’ validity on the day of arrival or departure.
Any scheme would not be up and running before 2023.
The MPs have asked that “the outcome of review of this proposal is supplied to the committee within the next six months”.
A spokesperson for HM Passport Office said: “We will consider the response to this recommendation, before replying to the committee in due course.”
In her letter to the home secretary, Dame Diana deplored the refusal by the provider of the passport helpline, Teleperformance, to appear at the select committee hearing.
“Given the helpline is one of the biggest frustrations cited by applicants, we find this refusal completely unsatisfactory,” she wrote.
The committee also recommended “greater proactive management of passport demand from the public” – by urging passport holders to renew during quieter periods in the demand cycle
The MPs suggested travellers could be offered incentives “such as a slightly longer passport extension, to encourage applications to be submitted ahead of the peak”.
Until September 2018, passport renewals were routinely granted up to nine months of “unspent” validity if they were renewed early.
