HC Deb 27 July 1999 vol 336 c270W
Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many telephone calls were made to the Passport Agency by members of the public; and how many of those calls received a courtesy message at(a) each office of the United Kingdom Passport Agency and (b) in total, in the weeks ended (i) 4 July and (ii) 11 July. [92774]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

[holding answer 23 July 1999]: The information requested is given in the form of calls received on the United Kingdom Passport Agency's (UKPA) published telephone number (0870 5210410); and calls received by the new emergency call centre (0845 6004646), for customers who have already submitted an application and are travelling within one week.

A breakdown of the telephone calls received on the 0870 5210410 number is as follows:

  • week ending Friday, 2 July 1999—total of 225,297 calls received of which 135,877 received an explanatory message;and
  • week ending Friday, 9 July 1999—total of 106,949 calls received of which 54,474 received an explanatory message.

The UKPAs management information is recorded weekly from Saturday to the following Friday. These figures are collated centrally and cannot be broken down to an estimate for each office in any accurate way.

The total number of telephone calls received on the 0845 6004646 emergency number, which became operational on Friday, 2 July 1999, was:

  • week ending Sunday, 4 July 1999–66,189; and
  • week ending Sunday, 11 July 999–69,709.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average time for processing straightforward applications by the UK Passport Agency(a) per office and (b) in total, (i) on the last available date and (ii) in each of the last six months; and if he will make a statement. [92965]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

The information requested in the form of the average maximum processing time in working days for non-urgent applications is shown in the table:

cleared, and the Agency is making considerable progress with August travellers. Applications in process represent less than three weeks work at current output levels, and with intake declining, processing times for non-urgent work should begin to fall over the next few weeks.