Statistics watchdog criticises Home Office over passport "backlog" evidence

The UK Statistics Authority has criticised the Home Office for failing to publish evidence behind claims made by its Ministers in relation to the row over this summer's passport "backlog".

"On high profile issues, where Ministers make statements based on management information, the UK Statistics Authority expects Government Departments to place the supporting information in the public domain, in the form of an ad hoc statistical release, to support the Ministerial comment."

The supposed backlog was reported to have threatened half a million people with the prospect of "ruined summer holidays".

The cause, according to Labour, was a reduction in staff numbers at the Passport Office, while the Home Secretary claimed staff numbers had actually gone up.

The data that we could get hold of showed that as of June 2014 there were fewer Passport Office staff than there were in 2009/10. The Home Secretary claimed that other factors had created the backlog, such as the fact that applications were at a 12 year high but the Home Office didn't publish the figures behind these claims. So we asked the Statistics Authority to look into it.

The Authority concluded:

"the Authority's core principle is to encourage equality of access - so that all those interested in an issue of public debate can draw on the same data compiled on the same basis at the same time. In this case, the Home Office has not met this expectation."

We couldn't agree more.

The Authority is now waiting for the Home Office to release the underlying data covering the full 12 year period.