The economy is gathering up a head of steam, more people can afford holidays abroad, more passports are being renewed and HM Passport Office has a backlog. But is this 500,000 or just 30,000 passport applications in the backlog? The figures differ greatly depending on who you believe but the truth remains that a backlog exists. We have learnt that the ‘culprits’ are those applying from abroad because of the centralisation of the passport service and the extra security checks needed.
This month, Theresa May did a lot to alleviate the situation by giving an automatic one year passport to British expats with passports about to expire. Other measures including the issuance of emergency passports for children of expats and the free speeding up of the process for anyone with an urgent need to travel. This was welcome news and shows the Home Secretary to be showing great leadership on the issue.
But the above measure are temporary solutions. As things stand there are 4.7 million Britons living and working abroad – almost the population of Scotland – and these Britons can no longer renew their passport at local British consular services in their country of residence. The fee has reduced recently to be more in line with applying from the UK but the usual waiting time is at least five weeks longer and this target time is not being met in all cases.
Sometimes small is beautiful. It is the last government that centralised passport issuance and we need to escape this legacy. If you happen to be abroad as a Brit and need an emergency passport, this service is still available to you via the British Consular service in the country you happen to be visiting or resident. I would argue that it would not take that much extra cost to extend this service to cover all passports issued to British expats abroad. With British passports issued to British expats in their country of residence at British consulates, issues with backlog would be less likely to reoccur and enhanced service could be delivered.
An added advantage could be the re-establishing of links between the British Expat community and British Consular services. In times of emergency it is always useful to know how many British people are situated in a country and where exactly they live. This is easier to do if British people have more direct links with the consular services.
We should maintain centralised visa centres around the world for processing visas from foreign nationals but British people need to have a better service from their country, for this we need to return to local consular services in the country of residence issuing British passports to British expats.
