A DAMNING report released by the Home Affairs Committee on the 'appalling series of failures' of HM Passport Office offers ‘some hope’ for new jobs in Newport, a city MP says.

The report has been released following a disastrous year for the Passport Office which includes backlog chaos and strike action by staff.

Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West and a member of the Home Affairs Committee said the Committee’s Report on the troubled Passport Service offers ‘some hope’ of more jobs in Newport.

The report, released today, says that additional jobs should be found, where possible, in areas that have suffered from Passport Office job losses previously – as in Newport, which lost half its Passport Office jobs. There are now 150 left in the city, after a strong campaign by local politicians and the Argus against the mooted closure of the city's office.

In July staff at Newport’s Passport Office joined thousands of colleagues by going on strike over staffing levels.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said the 24-hour strike action was a “bid to end staffing shortages that have caused the ongoing backlog crisis”.

Days later hundreds of Newport-based civil servants walked out of work in opposition to plans to privatise their jobs and send them abroad.

About 700 people performing back-room functions like payroll and human resources are employed full-time at the Shared Services centre, with 300 others doing the same jobs on temporary contracts.

The report on the Passport Office released today said: "The HMPO must have the right number of staff, and the right mix to deal with peaks in demand, as evidenced by the extremely high use of overtime so far this year.

“We call on the Union and HMPO management to discuss the issue of adequate staffing, so that a sustainable solution can be negotiated, and call for the restoration of goodwill between management and the Union.”

The Passport Office has cut hundreds of staff since 2010. The number of full-time staff there fell from 3,700 at the end of 2010 to 3,164 by 2012, but rose to 3,333 by the end of 2013.

To cope with this year’s crisis, the Passport Office has drafted in staff from other Home Office agencies, extended opening hours for processing centres and offered enhanced overtime payments.

The report added: “'Based on the figures for overtime, it is clear that the use of overtime to deal with peaks in demand has proved unsustainable this year. This again raises the question of whether HMPO have the right number of staff, and the right mix to deal with peaks in demand. We recommend that future additional jobs should be located, where possible, in areas that suffered from previous job losses in the Passport Office.''

Mr Flynn said: “The chaos of this year has resulted in huge additional costs for overtime and compensation to those who have had to cancel holidays. The total additional cost in overtime only is likely to be £5m for this year. Compensation costs have not been calculated but could be twice that figure.

“To avoid future chaos increased staff will be required. They should be located in places such as Newport that suffered grievously from job losses.”

Chairman of the Committee Keith Vaz said: “This has been a summer of chaos at the passport office. There has been a complete management failure at the highest levels of the organisation.

"Despite making a surplus of £124 million over the past two years, making record overtime payments and giving its chief executive a salary larger than the Home Secretary's it is scandalous that bonuses of £674,000 have been awarded during this period.

"The management of this organisation would be unlikely to survive to the final round of " The Apprentice". The HMPO should lose its agency status and be brought back under direct ministerial control following this appalling series of failures."

James Brokenshire, Minister for Immigration and Security said: "Her Majesty's Passport Office faced unprecedented demand in 2014.Over five million passports have been issued so far this year.

"In response to this significant increase in demand the Home Secretary introduced a series of measures to ensure that passports could be received by people in time for them to travel on their summer holidays. This action has had a significant impact, reducing HMPO's outstanding number of applications from a peak of nearly 550,000 in June to around 90,000 today.

"Clearly this is little comfort for those who experienced delays and we need to make sure there is no repeat of the problems experienced this year. That is why the Home Secretary commissioned two reviews of HMPO to ensure it is working as effectively as possible. We are currently considering the findings of these reviews and will be announcing our response shortly.”