Brits have been handed their latest passport warning after more than a thousand were lost in the post.
Fresh figures reveal that a total for 1,196 passports were lost in the first half of 2021.
This figure is more than double those lost the year before, where the figure stood at 519.
A total of 437 passports were lost in 2019, while a further 422 were lost in 2018.
More than 1,000 passports were lost in the first half of 2021
Lauren Hurley
Passport renewal delays continue
Aaron Chown
And some have taken to Twitter to share their dismay at the passport situation.
One user tweeted: "After 11 weeks, I have been advised by the Liverpool office to report as lost. However, the lost/stolen passport system is down. Due to fly May 28. It's laughable."
Passports are currently being delivered by TNT, a firm owned by FedEx, after they signed a three-year deal worth £77million back in 2019 worth.
It comes after delays continued for passports, with ministers remaining adamant that the current 10-week turnaround target won’t be extended.
Another user took to Twitter took to complain about another issue: "They sent my son's passport with the wrong DOB. I returned it recorded delivery to Durham, whereupon they lost it and didn’t know how to fix it.
“After about 40 hours of phone calls I ended up reporting it lost and reapplying."
While Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union said that there was “huge uncertainty” for people with holidays booked.
He added: "Now we find out that the privatised delivery service is losing passports at a record rate too."
A Passport Office spokesperson said that the number of passports lost was “less than 0.04 percent”, adding that “many of those items have been subsequently recovered".
The spokesperson added: "Once reported, passports are cancelled on the system immediately in order to mitigate against the risk of misuse and we continue to work with our delivery partner to develop measures to reduce the number of losses overall."
