§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what extra resources of people or equipment would be necessary to bring down the waiting time for a passport from the Glasgow office to 14 days; and if he has any plans to provide these resources;
(2) what is the policy of his Department regarding a satisfactory waiting time for the issue of a straightforward, non-urgent passport.
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§ Mr. RentonNon-urgent applications posted to the Glasgow passport office are now being processed within 11 working days, and those lodged in person within four working days. This improvement in the service has been achieved mainly as a result of the additional staff allocated to the office earlier this year, referred to in my reply to a recent question from the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Mrs. Michie).
Passport application forms advise applicants to allow at least a month for non-urgent postal applications. Urgent applications are given priority. Our aim, once the computerisation programme has been completed in all passport offices, is to process applications in much less than a month.