HC Deb 19 October 1999 vol 336 c439W
Mr. Evans

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in Lancashire received their passports after the target date set by the Passport Agency in each of the last six months. [94208]

Mrs. Roche

The Passport Agency does not monitor its performance on a county basis.

Applications from Lancashire would normally be dealt with by the Liverpool Passport Office, which faced considerable operational difficulties over the summer. To ensure that customers' needs were met, it moved from working a ten-day turnaround target for straightforward applications—its main customer service target—to prioritising applications by declared travel dates. These dates were met in 99.99 per cent. of cases.

Mr. Evans

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in Lancashire did not receive their passports from the Passport Agency before their declared journey time; and when they will receive(a) compensation and (b) apologies. [94183]

Mrs. Roche

Applications from Lancashire would normally be dealt with by the Liverpool Passport Office and their records show that in the period January 1999 to September 1999 claims were received from 22 residents in Lancashire relating to a missed travel date. The Passport Agency very much regrets the anxiety and inconvenience caused by its missing of these dates. All these cases have received an apology and compensation as appropriate.

Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to carry out the next customer satisfaction survey for the UK Passport Agency. [94132]

Mrs. Roche

Customer satisfaction surveys are carried out by the Passport Agency bi-monthly for postal applications and every quarter for personal callers. The last postal survey covered the period 30 July to 2 September 1999 and is due to be published shortly. The last survey for personal callers covered the period 27 August to 4 October and is due to be published at the beginning of November. Copies of the analyses of these surveys will be placed in the Library.