HMPO issues guidance to let customers know how long it takes to process a standard passport application; this is currently set at 10 weeks.23 We asked HMPO to clarify whether this included the time it took for an application to be received and logged onto HMPO’s system, following concerns that there were periods in the summer of 2022 when it took Sopra Steria Ltd. up to two and a half weeks to log applications onto the system. HMPO explained that it instructed staff to factor this in when dealing with customers by adding what it termed “lead time” to the internal processing time, which began when all the relevant documents were uploaded. HMPO told us that if an application took six weeks internally for HMPO to process, and it took two and a half weeks to be logged on to the system, it would be recorded as taking eight and a half weeks. However, HMPO accepted that it could not say how well this was carried out during what was a “trying period”.24