Public Service

Passport office staff get two-hour cut in working week

Department says shorter hours are not expected to affect turnaround times for passport applications

So far this year, there have been around 600,000 passport applications and 200,000 people were waiting for their applications to be processed last month. Picture: Getty

Passport Office staff will have their working week reduced by two hours next month at a time of a record backlog in passport processing.

The government has authorised the reduction of their working week from 37 hours to 35 hours from July 1 following the recommendations of an independent review.

It comes at a time when it is taking the Passport Office about five weeks on average to process new passport applications for children or ...