HC Deb 06 June 1989 vol 154 cc46-50W
Mr. David Young

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what emergency action he intends to take for those who require full passports; and if he will issue guidance for those requiring group passports.

Mr. Hurd

Delays which had been occurring in some areas during the peak season have been made worse by the recent industrial action in the passport offices. I very much regret the inconvenience that this has caused and will continue to cause to the public.

Following a ballot held by the Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA), 84 out of 295 staff in the Liverpool office came out on indefinite strike on 30 May. Following ballots at all other offices, members of the CPSA staged a one-day sympathy strike on 2 June in favour of the Liverpool action, when a total of 219 failed to report for work. A ballot held by the National Union of Civil and Public Servants (NUCPS) obtained no majority for a sympathy strike and, as a result, there has so far been no official action by NUCPS members.

All passport offices have remained open and counter services are being maintained, with priority being given to urgent cases. I am asking my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary to contact certain other Governments to see whether, in the special circumstances in which we find ourselves, they would consider accepting expired British passports or (where they do not do so already) British visitor passports (BVPs).

Travellers should be given the best possible advice and I am urgently considering ways of improving this. Those with an urgent need to travel in western Europe may apply for a BVP to any main post office in England, Scotland or Wales. BVPs are now available on Mondays to Fridays, and on Saturday mornings. Where a standard passport has been applied for in good time and has not been processed, BVP fees will be refunded on application. For countries where a BVP is not acceptable, travellers who have an urgent requirement (including for group passports) are advised to call in person at the most convenient passport office, where every effort will be made to ensure that a suitable travel document is provided.

We shall seek to bring this dispute to a satisfactory end. Management and unions are meeting tomorrow and I hope that they will be able urgently to identify means of resolving the dispute.

The unions' principal demand is for an increase of 381 staff on the permanent complement of 1,000. The demand for passports is partly seasonal. Demand rises in the new year, reaches its peak in early summer and falls away in the autumn. It makes sense to deal with the busy period partly by employing temporary staff and using overtime. At present, for example, a total of 1,420 staff are employed. The unions are not asking for any increase in this total but that the permanent proportion be increased.

It is common ground that there have been changes in the pattern of demand. There is now a smaller difference between the peaks and the troughs. We therefore looked again at the case for a higher proportion of permanent staff. The National Audit Office has recently pointed out that it is not acceptable to staff troughs relatively more favourably than peaks. Nor would it be sensible to pre-empt the findings of the staffing review which both sides have already agreed should be undertaken once we know of the effects of the present computerisation programme so far implemented only in Glasgow and Liverpool.

But as a result of this examination, the Home Office concluded that the present justifiable maximum addition to the permanent complement was 158, subject to the impending staffing review. We began to recruit these extra permanent staff some weeks ago and propose to complete the process by the end of July.

We have always been ready to provide in total—whether permanent or temporary—as many staff as can be justified by the workload and accommodated in the offices concerned. But we would not be justified in employing on a permanent basis staff who would have little or nothing to do during the slack period in the autumn and early winter.

We have begun the computerisation of offices with the new passport. This must be the right long term solution. There have been teething problems with the introduction of computerisation in Glasgow and Liverpool, but we must see these through with the help of the staff.

We intend to give the passport office the status of an executive agency, and are discussing the timing and details of the change. We believe that this will free the energies of staff and management to give better service to the public.

Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current delay in(a) acknowledging receipt of applications to renew passports, (b) acknowledging receipt of applications for new passports, (c) issuing renewed passports and (d) issuing new passports in respect of the Newport passport office; and what specific advice he has given applicants by way of newspaper advertisements as to the lead-time for the two classes of applications.

Mr. Renton

Straightforward non-urgent postal applications of all types are being processed at the Newport passport office within a maximum of 46 working days. Urgent applications are given priority and are processed in accordance with travellers' requirements. Applications are not normally acknowledged. Information about current delay times is frequently given in response to enquiries from the news media, and in the recorded telephone message facility for callers to the Newport office, which is extensively used and updated weekly.

Mr. Speller

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider appointing major sub-post offices as agents for the issue of British visitors passports; what size of local population would be suitable for such an appointment; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Renton

The issuing of British visitors passports is generally limited to the 1500 Crown post offices for reasons of security and economy. By agreement with the passport department, the facility is being retained by those Crown offices which are regraded to sub-office status under the Post Office's current restructuring plans, but we would not wish to extend this arrangement to other sub-offices.

Mr. Straw

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he intends to take to deal with the inadequacies of the telephone system and inquiry service at the Liverpool passport office.

Mr. Jack

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to improve the Liverpool passport office telephone inquiry service.

Mr. Renton

The Liverpool passport office has a 24 exchange line switchboard. A recorded message facility offering an additional 26 telephone lines was installed in April, and further improvements are planned which will route incoming calls directly to the inquiry section. Efforts are being made to reduce the backlog of passport applications which is the reason for most of the telephone enquiries received, but the situation has been adversely affected by the current industrial action at Liverpool.

Mr. Straw

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passport applications are awaiting process in(a) Liverpool and (b) London passport offices; what is the current average delay, in weeks; and what reasons there are for this backlog.

Mr. Renton

The information for the week ended 28 May is shown in the table:

Passport office 1Application 2Maximum processing times
Liverpool 215,469 15 weeks
London 22,622 5 weeks
1 Shows the estimated number of applications at the various stages of processing.
2 Shows the maximum processing time in weeks (averages are not recorded).

Normally most applications are processed well within the maximum period, with priority being given to urgent cases, but a sharp increase in demand early this year has led to an increase in processing times, and staff at Liverpool are also having to adapt to a new computerised system of passport issuing. Additional staff have been employed to help deal with the backlogs, and a system of free two-year extensions to the life of certain expired passports submitted for replacement has been introduced at Liverpool to help relieve the immediate problem there. The situation at Liverpool has recently been made more serious as a result of industrial action by some members of staff.

Mr. Darling

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average time taken to process passport applications at(a) Liverpool and (b) Glasgow; and what he expects the position to be by 1990.

Mr. Renton

Passport applications are processed according to the applicant's travel requirements, with priority being given to urgent cases. As a result, processing times in a given period vary considerably, and averages are not recorded.

The current maximum processing time for straightforward non-urgent postal applications at the Liverpool Passport Office is 73 working days, and at Glasgow 50 working days. Most applications are processed well within these maximum periods.

Processing time should be reduced next year when the new computer system is fully established, and staff have become fully conversant with its operation.

Mr. Darling

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate loss of revenue to be incurred as a result of his decision to allow a two-year extension to passports without charge.

Mr. Renton

I take it that the hon. Member is referring to the special arrangement at the Liverpool passport office announced by my right hon. Friend on 11 May at column978.

We estimate that the measure will cost in the region of £1.3 million in the current financial year. Since, however, the great majority of the applications concerned are likely to be renewed on or before expiry of the two year extension period, the overall loss in passport fee receipts is likely to be small.