Tory backlash at ‘rewards for failure’ after Passport Office staff shared nearly a MILLION POUNDS in bonuses as hundreds of thousands of Britons faced delays and travel chaos

• Passport Office staff handed nearly million pounds in bonuses last financial year
• The handouts, revealed after FOI request, came as Britons suffered long delays
• NAO said HMPO needed to ‘learn lessons’ on plans to deal with surge after Covid

Passport Office staff shared nearly a million pounds in bonuses as hundreds of thousands of Britons faced delays and travel chaos, it can be revealed.

Five top mandarins at HMPO received up to £8,000 each in 2021-22 as part of the payouts, despite ‘system’ and planning issues contributing to the post-Covid carnage.

The details, disclosed following a Freedom of Information request by MailOnline, emerged after a spending watchdog said people suffered ‘anxiety’ and the Home Office agency must ‘learn lessons’.

In 2019 applicants were advised processing could take three or six weeks, but by April 2021 HMPO was saying to allow 10 weeks despite preparing for high demand after Covid.

Even then the National Audit Office found 360,000 people had to wait longer in the first nine months of 2022.

Hundreds of thousands of Britons suffered extreme waits for passports after Covid  

The FOI response – which was provided by the Home Office six months after the initial request – showed a total of £958,000 in non-consolidated bonuses was handed out in 2021-22.

Five senior civil servants split £31,836, with the maximum award £8,000.

Some 69 grade six and seven staff received up to £1,500 each from a £126,000 pot.

The bulk of the money went to more junior staff. Bonuses related to performance in the previous financial year – although as Covid travel restrictions were in place during that period there was far lower activity than normal as the agency planned for a surge.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘HMPO staff responded to unprecedented demand after the pandemic, which saw five million people delay their passport applications due to travel restrictions.

‘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.’

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told MailOnline: ‘Bonuses are a good way of incentivising people but it is an insult to taxpayers when they become a reward for failure.’ 

The NAO report published earlier this month pointed to a ‘record number’ of applications in the first nine months of 2022 and said 95 per cent of customers received their passports within the extended timescale of 10 weeks.

But it concluded that problems with recruitment and ‘limitations in its systems’, as well as unsuccessful efforts to plan for demand all ‘contributed to longer than expected waits’.

Significantly fewer people applied for and renewed passports at the height of Covid and officials were preparing for an ‘expected surge’ in applications when travel restrictions were lifted.

The NAO urged the agency to learn lessons from the chaos with ‘similar levels of demand’ expected in 2023, when up to 10million applications could be made.

People queuing outside the Newport branch of the Passport Office this spring  

An estimated three million passport applications are still expected from people who did not renew or apply during the pandemic, which means the passport office could see a further 9.8million applications in 2023.

Head of the NAO Gareth Davies said: ‘HM Passport Office processed a record number of applications amid unprecedented demand.

‘But limitations in its systems, coupled with difficulties in keeping up with higher-than-average numbers of customers contributed to delays for hundreds of thousands of people, creating anxiety for those with travel plans and hampering people’s ability to prove their identity.

‘HMPO must now learn the lessons from this year and prepare for similar levels of demand that are expected in 2023.’

The Home Office has acknowledged that Britons did not receive the service they ‘rightfully’ expect, but argued that passport-issuing authorities across the world struggled in the wake of the pandemic.

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