Difficulties with the customer helpline meant that many customers contacted their MP to try and resolve issues with their passport applications. The NAO reported that the Department received 11,400 letters from MPs regarding HMPO business between January and July 2022.19 Following our evidence session, the Department wrote to us confirming it had received 53,305 passport related queries from MPs between January and December 2022 across all forms of communication, including 23,431 queries by phone and 13,333 by email or letter.20 HMPO told us that in July 2022, it received an average of 237 calls from MPs each day. HMPO accepted that the shortcomings in its customer service had undermined customers’ confidence more widely, which further increased levels of customer contact and placed more pressure on Teleperformance and HMPO. More customers also filed complaints through this period, from fewer than 1,000 in April 2021 to 1,741 in June 2022.21 14 Q 59 15 Q 62 16 Letter from Sir Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, to Dame Meg Hillier, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, 18 January 2023 17 Qq 75, 102; C&AG’s Report, para 3.13, Figure 9 18 Q 33 19 C&AG’s Report para 3.18 20 Letter from Sir Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, to Dame Meg Hillier, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, 18 January 2023 21 Qq 30–33; C&AG’s Report para 3.18 Investigation into the UK Passport Office 11