Dominic Raab
(Picture: REUTERS)Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday the Government is willing to consider changing the controller of passport services, but no decision has yet been taken.
It comes after a senior Government source said Boris Johnson is ready to “privatise the a***” out of the Passport Office amid fears that families could miss out on their summer holidays due to delays in renewing their documents.
Asked if privatisation is the answer, Mr Raab told ITV's Good Morning Britain programme: “I think the point the Prime Minister made, and he made it again last night, is that we're neutral on the question of who does the provision; what we’re not neutral on - and what we want to see - is the service to the taxpayer and to the public being the very best value for money.
“Therefore, if we need to consider changing the controller of a particular service, that’s something that we’re willing to do. But I don’t think a decision has been taken either way on it.”
Asked whether, if he had responsibility for these matters, he might have called a meeting last summer and told civil servants they should be ready for a surge in passport applications when travel restrictions lifted, he said: "Of course we want to try and look ahead, pre-empt and mitigate the risks that we've got.
“But we would still have backlogs in various different areas. The idea that we'd come through a pandemic on this scale and it would all be seamless and we'd just get back to normal, I don’t think is realistic.”
It echoes comments made by Boris Johnson on TalkTV on Wednesday night, with the prime minister saying he wanted public institutions to deliver “value for money and keep people’s costs down”.
“If you want to go on holiday with your family, it costs hundreds of pounds. You need a faster service,” he added.
Ministers say that the primary reason for the backlog has been a sudden surge in people applying for passports following the end of all Covid travel restrictions.
It has left many people left with no choice but to pay up to £150 to fast-track their applications in time for the summer break.
However, families have faced a wait of up to ten weeks or longer for a passport - forcing people to cancel plans.
