03 November 2023 , 16:00
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Passport officials were handed £2.1million in bonuses despite a massive backlog of applications.
Some 9,609 bonuses totalling £2,105,225 were doled out last year - despite a watchdog revealing 360,000 people waited longer than the target of 10 weeks for their passports to arrive. Travellers who had their hopes dashed missed out on holidays, visiting families abroad and, in some cases, were unable to gain employment or prove their identities.
The bonuses for 2022 dwarfed awards in the previous two years, when services and applications were hampered because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, when international travel virtually ground to a halt in mid-March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Passport Office bonuses totalled £173,425. The following year, when the industry was still severely hampered by restrictions and people’s reluctance to travel because of uncertainty, it dipped to £172,850.
Last December, the National Audit Office issued a damning verdict on the Passport Office saying it struggled to keep up with "unprecedented demand" in 2022. Some 360,000 customers waited more than 10 weeks to receive their passports in the first nine months of last year, the watchdog said.
At the time, NAO chief Gareth Davies said that while the Passport Office processed a "record number of applications", dealing with a higher-than-average demand unleashed "delays for hundreds of thousands of people". It created "anxiety" for people with travel plans and blocked people from using passports as forms of identity, he said.
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Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael, who uncovered the bonuses using freedom of information rules, told the Mirror they were “a scandal”. He added: “Why did the Passport Office significantly increase bonuses to staff in a year when they failed thousands of people?
“This Conservative Government caused untold misery for thousands of British people with all their chaos, yet they’re allowing the Passport Office to hand out millions of pounds in taxpayer cash. That money would be better spent on setting out a real plan to tackle the ongoing passport backlogs. It’s time for the Home Office to stop rewarding failure and get serious about fixing these problems.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “His Majesty’s Passport Office staff responded to unprecedented demand in 2022 with over one million more passports issued than in any previous year. This demand was met thanks to operational teams who handled a record 8.4 million passport applications, leading to an increase in reward and recognition for these efforts. It is important that we offer competitive salaries and bonuses to recruit, retain and motivate the best people, whilst ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.”