Passport delays 'forcing hundreds in Wales to cancel trips'

Delays in processing passports applications are forcing hundreds of families in Wales to cancel holidays, it has been claimed.

A Denbighshire nurse described how she missed a retirement trip to Rome having waited 11 weeks for her passport.

Welsh Labour has blamed the backlog on "years of under-investment" which it claimed was now causing stress.

The Passport Office said applicants should allow 10 weeks as it deals with 250,000 passport applications a week.

After working on the front line during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, Medwen Griffiths was finally looking forward to a holiday overseas.

The 59-year-old nurse from Denbigh will retire at the end of the summer so had planned a four-day getaway with friends to Rome to celebrate.

But as the date of her flight got closer she began to get more anxious that her passport had not arrived and despite contacting the Passport Office multiple times, she missed her holiday at a cost of about £250.

She is still waiting for her passport, 11 weeks after applying.

"I worked through Covid so this was the first holiday for about three years so I was really looking forward to it," she said.

"But everyone else went and I was left alone at home - it was upsetting.

"I know you shouldn't book your holiday unless you have your passport but I honestly thought it would have come in this time."

Ms Griffiths said she had contacted the Passport Office a number of times but was yet to receive her passport and said officers were trying to track down her passport after telling her it had been lost.

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said Ms Griffiths' experience is becoming "far too common", and claimed thousands of people across the UK were in a similar position.

"It's creating a huge amount of stress and worry, whether holidays are going to be cancelled and hard earned money is going to be lost," said the Aberavon MP.

"There are also people who need to go abroad for work assignment or job interviews. We've heard lots of stories of people missing out on employment opportunities and it's creating huge trouble."

In a statement in the House of Commons last week, Mr Kinnock called on the UK government to apologise for delays, calling it "Backlog Britain".

"It's about having the plans in place to deal with the bottleneck that was bound to come," said Mr Kinnock.

"This failure to create the new IT system needed has messed with a lot of people's plans."

The system is under pressure after an estimated five million people held off applying during the pandemic because travel was severely restricted. With Covid restrictions scrapped, the rush to renew is creating unprecedented delays.

The Passport Office, an agency of the Home Office, said it had hired 500 additional members of staff with plans for 700 more after senior UK Government ministers described the system's current performance as "unacceptable".

However officials said people should allow 10 weeks to renew a passport due to security checks and claimed 98.5% of applications were being completed within that time.

A spokesperson added: "People should allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their passport to factor the increase in demand, which has seen five million people delay their applications due to the pandemic."

Ms Griffiths said she was hoping to go on holiday again, once she has her passport in hand.

However she added: "It has put me off renewing my daughter's now because I'm just worrying it won't come back."