Hundreds of passports were lost by a private courier, despite a plummeting number of the documents being sent out.
International travel has started back up again following the Covid-19 pandemic. This has created a surge in passport applications which took the government by surprise - causing a major backlog.
But even with more staff being recruited to ease delays, The Mirror has revealed that, despite a reduction of passports being sent out because of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, hundreds of passports were lost by the Passport Office's exclusive courier, TNT.