UK Passport Agency (Hansard, 28 April 1995)

§ Mr. Nicholas Baker

Responsibility for these matters has been delegated to the UK Passport Agency under its chief executive, Mr. David Gatenby. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from David Gatenby to Dr. Kim Howells, dated 28 April 1995: The Secretary of State for the Home Department has asked me to reply to your Questions about the UK Passport Agency. The Passport Agency has significantly improved its performance since it was established as an executive agency of the Home Office in April 1991. Demand has risen to record levels (we provided almost 4 million passport services in the year ended 31 March 1995) but the maximum time for processing straightforward applications has been reduced from 95 working days in 1989 to 16 working days in 1994. Since 1991 efficiency has been improved by 13.7% in real terms. Very high levels of customer satisfaction are being achieved. In November 1994, in confirming the Agency's status as an executive agency for a further 5 years, the Home Secretary indicated his expectation that the Agency would further improve the quality of its service, and its efficiency and that, in accordance with Government policy, the private sector should become progressively involved in the issuing of passports. As part of this process, to improve the convenience and accessibility of its service to the public, the Agency plans to establish, by October 1995, partnerships with travel agents, banks, and the Post Office covering the initial handling of passport applications. This approach has been fully discussed with the Agency Trade Union Side (TUS). I have indicated to them that once the partnership arrangements are effectively in place we will wish to develop them further. It is accepted on both sides that changes to the partnership arrangements will be subject to prior consultation. To explore the scope for achieving greater efficiency, we shall shortly commence a review of ways or involving the private sector in the issuing operation after the decision to grant a passport is taken, and in the provision of support services. Until the reviews have been undertaken I am unable to say whether or not private sector involvement is likely but if it is I can assure you that the Agency would require the system to be equally as secure and confidential as the present operation. There has been no secrecy about these reviews which were mentioned in the Home Secretary's statement, and in briefings to our staff. We have also undertaken a review of the size number and location of the Agency's offices and this has recently been completed. Once we have sought Ministers' approval of the findings and recommendations we will advise our staff and consult the TUS. The review has taken into account the Agency's current and future business needs and the needs of its customers and staff. We are committed to continuing to improve customer service and to maintaining the professionalism of staff. The outcome of the review will in no way diminish the Agency's resolve in these two very important areas. As you will appreciate we are duty bound to carry out Government policy which as clearly explained in the two recent White Papers on the Civil Service requires us, among other things, to absorb increases in pay and prices through efficiency improvements. In seeking efficiency savings we simply cannot ignore our staff costs which currently account for more than 50% of our unit costs. The passport business is demand led. Passport demand shows a marked seasonality with demand averaging 100,000 applications per week between mid January and mid July, but tailing off rapidly to under 50,000 per week immediately after the main holiday season. Our policy which I believe is a sensible one, is to match our staffing resources more closely to the pattern of passport demand. Over time this will mean some reduction in permanent full-time staff resources as we introduce more flexible and efficient staffing arrangements. These are likely to include the continuation of shift working which is already being used very successfully in four of our offices is providing job opportunities which would not otherwise exist and is proving very popular with those who prefer evening 752W work to daytime work. My aim, so far as is possible, is to achieve these reductions in full-time permanent resources through natural wastage. I have given an assurance that there will be no redundancies as a result of introducing those arrangements in the coming year to the end of March 1996. Overall, however, we are likely to be employing more, rather than less staff, although not all staff will work the full year. This will be jobs in place of the former practice of working excessive overtime in the first half of the year. I do not believe we have breached agreements with the Trade Unions. In certain areas they have been overtaken by events, and we must have regard to the overriding imperatives of Government policy. We shall shortly be consulting our Trade Unions about a review of these arrangements to check that they remain relevant to the Agency's present and future needs. I remain committed to the maintenance of good industrial relations, and to proper consultations with the TUS. As you are aware Ministers have already announced the withdrawal of the British Visitor's Passport (BVP) from 31 December 1995. The Agency is already seeing a steady increase in demand as people switch away from the BVP and we expect these increased levels to continue for the remainder of this year and most of next. Thereafter we will return to lower levels. We have taken a number of measures to cope with this temporary extra demand including increasing the number of seasonal staff we employ and extending the evening shifts. I am confident that these measures will enable us to cope with the expected increase. I expect all of the measures I have outlined in my letter to lead to improved productivity reduced unit costs and an even better service for our customers. I should perhaps re-emphasise that we are currently coping with record levels of demand with an average turnround time of less than seven days and shift working is contributing to this success. I hope my letter has satisfactorily answered your concerns. If there is anything further you wish to know or if you would like more details of our plans I would be pleased to meet you to discuss them.