Her Majesty’s Passport Office no longer an Executive Agency
As part of measures brought in by the Home Secretary to improve the output of the HMPO, Her Majesty’s Passport Office now finds itself directly answerable to ministers after being brought into the Home Office. This move follows the introduction of emergency measures earlier in the year, in a response to the excessive delays which were experienced by passport and passport renewal applicants. So far these actions have had a significant impact upon the outstanding number of passport applications, reducing numbers from 550,000 in June 2014 to the current level of around 80,000.
Along with such emergency procedures, these delays caused two reviews to be commissioned by the Home Secretary so as to ensure that HPMO was to run as efficiently as possible again with no repeat of the problems earlier in the year.
As a result, HMPO has ceased to be and Executive Agency as of 1 October 2012, and the post of Chief Executive will be abolished and replaced by a Director General.
