A family is facing being split apart on its summer holiday because of massive delays to a baby’s passport.
Shirley McArthur, of Kirkcaldy, says she does not know whether she and six-month-old Keir Hughes will be joining older son Jamie and partner Callum, 37, just days before the family are due to fly out to Majorca.
The 37-year-old primary school teacher said despite repeated phone calls to HM Passport Office, she is still waiting on her baby’s passport almost a month after making her initial application.
Although the passport office has promised to deliver her son’s passport in time, Ms McArthur admits she remains anxious, with the family scheduled to leave for Newcastle Airport on Friday.
Should the passport not arrive in time, Shirley says she and Keir will remain in Kirkcaldy while Jamie and Callum enjoy a fortnight of Spanish sunshine despite months of saving for the family holiday.
Keir’s documentation was submitted on June 4, just days before the service admitted it was struggling to process a major backlog of a passport requests.
“Someone has phoned to say it will be delivered by Royal Mail special delivery,” she told The Courier.
“I had already phoned in the morning and they said nothing had changed and somebody would phone me back.
“When I finished work I was thinking it would come in time but I really didn’t know it would be like this. I just didn’t know what to do next.”
Despite repeated phone calls to find out the whereabouts of her son’s application, Ms McArthur said she never received return calls from the agency to update her on the situation.
“I fully understand I shouldn’t have booked travel without him having a passport but at no time was I warned things were taking much longer than three weeks.
“This passport crisis news broke 10 days after I’d sent the forms away. The passport office does appear to be in absolute chaos.”
When asked to comment on the situation, HM Passport Office referred The Courier to remarks made by its chief executive Paul Pugh, who faced the Home Affairs Select Committee over the crisis last month.
He said applications for passports had been half a million higher than in previous years.