Measures to help clear the backlog in passport applications have been announced, together with a scrapping of charges for urgent renewals.
People renewing their UK passports from overseas will be given a 12-month extension to their existing passport.
Those applying for passports overseas on behalf of their children will be given emergency travel documents.
People with an “urgent need to travel” will be fast-tracked through the system free of charge, home secretary Theresa May told MPs. The fee is currently up to £128.
She said the government would do “everything it can” while maintaining security to “make sure people get their passports in time” – but there was no “big bang, single solution”.
May and other Home Office ministers have blamed the problems on a surge in applications which they say are running at a 12-year high.
She told MPs other measures would be taken to “relieve the administrative burden” on staff and “free up” trained officials to deal with the backlog.
The Passport Office is dealing with about 465,000 renewals and first-time passport requests, and 150,000 passports are being sent out each week.
May was questioned on the situation by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper in the House of Commons – three days after denying claims of a crisis.
She said every MP had been “inundated” with complaints about the issue but May did not seem to have known what was going on.
May also confirmed that responsibility for dealing with applications for passports overseas was changed from consulates and embassies to an online system based in the UK in March.
This change had been made to provide better value for money and to ensure more “consistency” of service and security checks, she said.
But Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson called the timing of this change – at the pre-summer peak applications season – “idiotic”.