Mr. John David Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what has been the average number of staff in the passport office, Belfast, for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe average number of staff in post at the Belfast passport office over each of the past five years was as follows: 135W
Numbers 1979 8.6 1980 8.8 1981 9.3 1982 9.5 1983 12.5 There are currently 20 staff in post, including casuals.
Until July 1983 the Belfast office did not issue standard passports, except in an emergency, and non-urgent applications were sent to the Glasgow passport office for processing. Postal applications were not accepted at Belfast until the office started to give a full passport service last year.
Mr. John David Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will take steps to reduce the average queueing time of two hours to have an application for a new passport accepted by the Belfast passport office; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe average time personal callers have to wait for a passport application to be examined at the Belfast passport office varies between 10 and 30 minutes according to the time of day. During the period when the staff take their lunch breaks, and the public office is at its busiest, some callers may have to wait for longer than average periods if they choose to have their applications examined. For those who cannot wait, provision is made for applications to be left and dealt with in the same way as those submitted by post. Straightforward applications submitted by post and in person are currently being processed in under three days.