HM Passport Office mixed up passport photographs

What happened

Mr B's daughter was invited by a friend to go on a holiday abroad. Mr B applied for the renewal of two of his daughters' passports at the same time – about a month before the proposed holiday. But when the passports came back, the girls' photographs were mixed up. HMPO told us that if it makes a mistake, it tells the customer to send in a new application and it would aim to process this within a week. Mr B said that when he phoned HMPO's passport advice line he was not given this information by the advice line operator. There were no records, so it was not clear what advice he was given. He sent back the passports with a covering letter and new photographs.

A week later HMPO told him he needed to make a new application but that it would try to make sure that his daughter got the new passport in time. Mr B initially refused to submit a new application and did not buy a flight ticket for his daughter because he could not be sure the passport would arrive in time. Mr B later filled in new applications and received the new passports but they did not arrive in time for his daughter's holiday. He complained to HMPO about its mistake and asked for a full explanation.

What we found

We partly upheld Mr B's complaint. HMPO was at fault for mixing up Mr B's daughters' photographs. However, because there was no evidence of what advice was given when Mr B called the advice line, we could not say that he was deprived the chance to make an expedited application that would have allowed his daughter to go on holiday. HMPO did not provide a full apology and explanations of what had gone wrong, or respond to his complaints.

Putting it right

Following our investigation, HMPO apologised and paid Mr B £50 compensation to reflect the annoyance and inconvenience he experienced.