Boris Johnson has threatened to privatize public bodies, including the Passport Office and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, unless they address their long backlog, he told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The British Prime Minister said some public authorities had fallen victim to a “culture after Covid manana” with slower services than the public was entitled to expect, officials said.
Johnson told ministers that if the situation did not improve, he would consider other options, including privatization, they added.
The intervention came after warnings that millions of holidaymakers were facing chaos this summer due to huge delays at the passport office. There has been a huge jump in demand since the removal of restrictions on Covid-19 this year, as 5 million people delayed the renewal of their passports in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic.
Graham Morris, a Labor MP, told the House of Commons on Monday that families in his constituency had already lost their holidays because the Passport Office had not met standard service hours. “During telephone communications with the Passport Office, my staff and I were misinformed and closed and received a series of unfulfilled promises,” he said.
Kevin Foster, the immigration minister, said there had been a “virtually unprecedented jump in demand” and called on the public to submit their applications as soon as possible.
However, he said the service had processed 1 million passports in the last month alone, with staff processing “three times or even four times” the previous week’s figure.
At the same time, DVLA is lagging far behind, as driving tests were suspended months after social distancing measures were imposed during the pandemic.
The number of people taking the test fell from about 1.6 million to 436,000 in 2020/21. This lag has led some students to wait many months to take their tests.
Even now, DVLA is struggling to process applications from people with medical conditions, many of whom have been waiting more than 10 weeks to find out if they can stay on the road.
Speaking on Talk TV on Tuesday night, Johnson said: “When I see institutions that do not deliver things like passports or driver’s licenses in a fast way, these things are quite expensive – £ 150 to get a new passport – we want action. ”
Johnson did not deny that he had told other ministers he was ready to “privatize the ass” of inefficient public authorities. “I don’t care if an institution is in the private or public sector, I just want to provide value,” he said. “I want to provide value and good service. . . what I want is to provide value for money and help reduce people’s costs. ”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will chair a meeting on Wednesday of the Committee on Efficiency and Value for Money, which is tasked with reducing £ 5.5 billion in government waste.
Cabinet Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg wrote to cabinet ministers urging them to merge or close quangos – semi-public administrations – to save taxpayers’ money as part of a broader public oversight program.
Johnson told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that they could reduce the financial burden on the general public by improving the effectiveness of quangos.
Separately, ministers were urged to emphasize the fact that some people do not want all the financial support they receive, such as non-taxable parenting and pension loans.
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