Passport office couriers losing new documents?

In keeping with the holiday theme, we look at a recent piece of news concerning the passport office and the delivery of new passports to customers. Many of you will be aware that the passport office has been in the news a lot recently for all the wrong reasons, mainly because of excessive delays in processing passport applications due to staffing issues, and this has caused people to lose and not go on their holidays. It turns out that even the lucky ones that have got their new passports printed are not immune from problems, because nominated couriers are losing them. Our latest blog post will take a closer look at this.

This is currently a highly politicised topic as it concerns the UK passport office which is part of the governmental family. It has recently been claimed that despite falling numbers in passports being created because of the issues mentioned above, there are still a rising number being lost, and this is leading to questions being asked of the nominated courier companies that the passport office is using.

The problems all started because of a fall in demand for travel during the covid 19 pandemic when all international travel was effectively cancelled. Fast forward and now things have opened up again, the passport office stand accused of being behind the curve and not anticipating demand. This has caused all sorts of problems, including lost new passports, or those being sent to the wrong address.

Statistics have shown that in 2018 and 2019, there were over 6 million passport applications processed with around 450 lost each year. Recent reports have shown that in this year so far, over 1,000 passports have been lost, and this only covers a period until July, not the whole of the year! So what is going on? This is rightly deeply worrying for many people, because it means that not only are their holidays and cash in jeopardy, there are also big security issues, because strangers (and perhaps more worryingly fraudsters) can have access to a wealth of details that passports give, meaning there is a real risk of identity fraud.

Freedom of information requests have shown that the UK government had signed a deal with a well-known delivery courier company for 3 years at a cost of £77 million. This deal is now coming to an end, but it is unclear what this means for the future, or what is going to be done about those who have had their passports lost.

Attempts have been made to set worried passport holders minds at ease by stating that as soon as passports are discovered missing, they are immediately cancelled to stop fraudulent activity, but this will be of little comfort to many who will think that someone else still holds all their personal details.

The good news is that Rock Solid Deliveries do not loose passports (yes, we have a forgotten passport service,) parcels, or any other items! All new customers are advised to read our Trustpilot site to see our excellent reviews from other customers, proving that some courier companies can actually deliver without problems or hassle!

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