Home Office - sensitive document blunders

Just under 4 years ago when applying for my sons 1st passport we paid the extra money to have the documents returned to us via recorded delivery, yet when they sent them back they were in the 'normal post' with a 2nd class stamp !!

I had similar many years ago when i applied for the whole family's passports. The documents were returned by post, however....
I came home from work and it was raining, I got my daughter into the house from the car, and had to get stuff backout of the car, only as i returned to it, I noticed an envelope in my neighbour's front path of the house, I didn't think much of it, but thought I'd check it out. It turned iut to be the envelope containing our documents, with a recorded elivery sticker on, but lying around in the street!

Needless to say I took it back into my own house & I also rang and complained to the passport agency, and royal mail.

the passport office said they didnt get my wifes application for a passport so the items were lost in the post ...phoned the royal mail customer services they said"i can assure you that anything sent in the post will reach its destanation " i know it makes you laught doesnt it...then went to the police thet said they cannot deal with this matter as its delt with the royal mail/passport office. my wife lost all her I.D as this was her first passport, this was 4 years ago...seems they are getting worse

Not related to the Home Office but I sent my passport to Leicester City Council, they checked it and sent it back to the wrong address. I only found out once I asked where it was, the recipient was kind enough to return it. However as a precautionary measure I cancelled it and applied for a new one - the council paid the costs.

In March 2008, I applied for my passport, and my documents were sent using a courier. I was at home when the courier arrived, she sat in her car for about 10 minutes, walked up to the door, and just shoved the envelope in the letterbox. I had to attend an interview to confirm my identity, and made sure to complain about this. However, my passport was delivered by the same person in exactly the same way a week later.

There is nothing secure about this kind of delivery, according to the Home Office, the courier will check to make sure that you live in a house by yourself, and not a shared flat, and that the letter box belongs to only one address before putting the envelope in it.

Utter Rubbish

I arranged and attended a appointment at Liverpool passport office to apply fro my daughters first passport and also for replacement passports for my wife and I as some details had changed. I explained the reason that we had traveled to the office (3 hour round trip) as we didn't want all our documents leaving our possession especially as we had got married abroad and had foreign document as a result. They checked our documents took copies and the applications were submitted. 3 days later we had a letter to say they were unable to process our applications as we had not provided documentary evidence. They informed us we had to post them all our documents. I went nuts on the phone trying to explain the mistake THEY had made and asked what on earth they were playing at as we had actually visited the passport office! They provided a prepaid NON secure envelope to send them in. I opted to send them by special delivery and was very unhappy about this as it meant our documents were now in the postal system. I can't believe they can be so stupid. I'm going to bill them for wasted petrol, a days childcare and the cost of the days pay I lost out on as I had to have a day of work. IDIOTS!

My daughter had the self-same thing happen when she renewed her passport. The Passport Office sent her an image of her front door as proof of delivery. Her passport was not delivered and she had to have it cancelled then re-apply for a replacement and meet all the extra costs herself.
Obviously this is a very serious problem. It not only allows identity theft but poses a more serious threat in these troubled times where security is so important. Just how many passports are "going astray"? Would the BBC like to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the figures.

How about The UK Border Agency? They are part of the Home Office too. We sent 4 non UK passports to get our residency visa by registered mail. They sent them back 2nd class in a thin and ripped envelope without even the need to be signed for on delivery. Royal Mail didn't even have them marked as received on their website, they were still marked as waiting to be collected for over 8 weeks. I the agancy asked if they had actually received them, they didn't even know they sent them to back to us 3 days before hand. They could have ended up anywhere and in anyones hands. Sloppy is more like a compliment than a criticism.

about five years ago both me and my brother sent of for replacement passports mine arrived my brothers didn't when we chased them up it had been delivered to the wrong house on the wrong street. The post office then lettered dropped our street trying to find the lost passport. Then 2 years ago I applied for a passport for my little boy it was delievered to my neighbours house I rang to complain and was never contacted even though someone was suppose to ring me back.

I had been dealing with the home office, in application for a VISA, initially they sent the documents back to me to supply further information, however all document (my husbands & my passport, marriage certificate, proof of income & proof of address) were sent back to me by second class delivery.

A few months later once my VISA was granted, I came home one day to find the envelope containing all our documents pushed though the letter box in the front door. There was a mark on the envelope which looked as though the orange 'signed for' sticker had been removed. By who I am not sure.

We live in a house which is converted into flats & all these people have access to our post. Anyone could have had access to my husbands and my details and identity!!

Hi
I had this same problem with the DVLA! They sent me a complete strangers life documents - birth and decree nisi doxs etc! He'd paid for gtee delivery back and I got them 2nd class!

hi I had the same problem with the DVLA! They sent me a strangers doxs including birth certificate, photo, decree nisi etc! He'd paid gtee delivery for returned doxs but I got them 2nd class! I had to contact him to tell him and pay gtee to send them back to the DVLA. Shocking - I could have had a credit card by the Monday morning.

hi I had the same problem with the DVLA! They sent me a strangers doxs including birth certificate, photo, decree nisi etc! He'd paid gtee delivery for returned doxs but I got them 2nd class! I had to contact him to tell him and pay gtee to send them back to the DVLA. Shocking - I could have had a credit card by the Monday morning.

I applied for a passport for my 9 month old daughter earlier this year. We received the passport but her birth certificate (for which we paid the courier fee) never arrived. The passport office and the highly unprofessional [courier company removed] accept no liability for this and say that their enquiries are closed and that because they have an undated photo of my front door that this is their proof. I have challenged this for 5 months now but am getting nowhere. These people need to be brought to task . They are being trusted with highly sensitive information and losing it. In any other industry this would be completely unacceptable! I am at my wits end as to how to deal with this matter!

I applied for a passport for my 9 month old daughter earlier this year. We received the passport but her birth certificate (for which we paid the courier fee) never arrived. The passport office and the highly unprofessional [courier company removed] accept no liability for this and say that their enquiries are closed and that because they have an undated photo of my front door that this is their proof. I have challenged this for 5 months now but am getting nowhere. These people need to be brought to task . They are being trusted with highly sensitive information and losing it. In any other industry this would be completely unacceptable! I am at my wits end as to how to deal with this matter!

Having watched the programme last night, I am now very concerned - my wife recently requested a new passport due to a name change, and sent off our marriage certificate.
Despite receiving the new passport by courier, we have not yet recieved the original documents back despite paying extra for 'secure delivery'.

I completed my Passport Application Form online which the Passport Office then sent by Royal Mail to my correct home address.
Sat 3rd Oct:- After checking all was correct, I returned my signed form with the correct fee, photos and my old passport.
Fri 9th Oct:- I received a phone call from a security delivery company asking when I had moved house! They had tried to deliver my passport and had been told that I had moved away a long time ago! Upon checking addresses it transpired that the Passport Office had given them the correct house name & number, correct road name but the wrong village and wrong second half of the postcode.
Tue 13th Oct:- Security company delivered my passport against my signature and proof of ID as arranged during our phone call on 9th.
I thought this was the end of the saga until . . .
Mon 2nd Nov:- My old passport arrived by Royal Mail in a brown envelope (printed Second Class Advanced Mail)addressed to the same incorrect address. The recipient there had returned it as "not known at this address" but the Passport Office, despite enclosing a slip, do not include a return address! It only reached me through the good services of our Royal Mail sorting office. In fact this envelope shouuld have arrived before the new passport as a means of acknowledging receipt of my completed application.
So much for Home Office security procedures!!!!!!!!!!!!

My story is mentioned above. What brought me to Watchdog was that the Home Office do not care that someone can use this "lost" passport. My daughter is ten and she asked me "can someone use my passport to take a little girl like Madeleine to another country?" When I put her question to the Home Office they had no answers and showed no desire to answer. It doesn't bear thinking of but it is true. The HOME OFFICE need to use a secure delivery service for ALL our identity documentation. A signed receipt should be obtained by the passport holder on ALL occasions. PROTECT our children and our identities. As a final note if this space will allow - if you have the time, please look at [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] website as new information has been posted. My sincere thanks.

I work in a government secure are and, if I made a mistake like this, would not only lose my clearance but could be prosecuted too.

For hayley densley
Whether this adoption certificate was sent to you or not makes no difference to security. Anyone can obtain anyone else birth/marriage/adoption certificate just by calling General Records and requesting it. As long as you have a the smallest amount of detail ie. a name, then its quite legal to obatin anyones birth cert.

I renewed my passport earlier this year. I received my new passport OK and they returned my old one to me but I also received someone elses passport too! When I rang the Passport Office to advise them they weren't in the least bit concerned. I commented that I could quite easily use this other passort to commit identity fraud as everything I needed to do that had been supplied by them. The person I spoke to at the Passport Office didn't seem at all fazed by this and when I asked what I should do with the other passort she just told me to mail it back to them!! She kept saying it was just an error on their part but I felt it was a serious breach of privacy. I was horrified by their lack of concern and I'm sure the person who's passort I received would be horrified to learn that their details had been passed on to a complete stranger. I did go on to lodge an official complaint with them over the proceedings but again they didn't seem to be in the least bit worried. I returned the passport to them by registered mail so at least they would have had to sign for it!

My wife and I have in the last few months renewed our passports. Nothing very difficult about that - my wife just had to send in our marriage certificate to register her change of name after our marriage in 2006, otherwise it was perfectly straightforward. We paid a few quid extra to get our applications checked at the local post office.
About three weeks went by, during which time my old passport came back through the post with its corners clipped off.
We thought no more about it, really. Our time is taken up caring pretty much full-time for my wife's mum who's nearly 88 and has dementia. Her dad, who designed the Dreadnought submarine, died in March.
We grab time off from our caring role when we can, which generally means paying for carers to sit with my mother-in-law. One Sunday in summer when we'd been out, we arrived home to find a bundle of white envelopes on the front doorstep, just inside the porch.
The bundle was marked 'Important - this is not a circular', which would have led me to believe it was just that...

But once I peeled away the elastic band and opened the first envelope, I realised with a shock that it was our new passports - and our marriage certificate. Delivered, apparently, according to a rubber stamp on one of the envelopes, by 'standard security'.
Security? Leaving our passports and other documents on our doorstep?

We can't, in true Victor Meldrew style, believe it!

It's an absolute disgrace for the government to bang on about security and clamping down on identity theft, terrorism and illegal immigration when it can leave sensitive documents on your doorstep in broad daylight.

My wife and I recently renewed our passports.
One Sunday when we'd been out, we arrived home to find a bundle of white envelopes on the front doorstep, just inside the porch, which is never closed or locked (because there's - usually - nothing in it!). Neither my mother-in-law nor her sitter had heard the doorbell ring (it's very loud - my late father-in-law was as deaf as a post).
The bundle was marked 'Important - this is not a circular'. Naturally I assumed it was a circular... but once I peeled away the elastic band and opened the first envelope, I realised with a shock that it was our new passports - and our marriage certificate. Delivered, apparently, according to a rubber stamp on one of the envelopes, by 'standard security'.

My Sons old passport has came back but not the new one. According to the passport office it has been delivered as the courier have a photo of my house door?. I am waiting for them to email this to me. This to me, is not proof that it was delivered,, no signature was given. The women at the passport office told me to search my house as it must be there. reigtered mail, would be better as a signature, has to be obtain, i would have thought for a legal document like a passport this would be a must.

I commented on this site a couple of weeks back regarding the fact that my wife sent off our Wedding Certificate and her old passport to change her name. Despite receiving back the new passport around a month ago, the documents and old passport had not been returned.

I'm pleased to say that, after a phone call to a very helpful lady on the Passport helpline, the documents were returned via courier the next day.

The drive to more and more security for ID to prevent fraud and theft continues but the problem is that in these sorts of situations when you ID is lost or stolen, it becomes even more difficult to reclaim it.

Identity Fraud is one of the UK's fastest growing crimes, affecting individuals and businesses.

I am living in France, and have recently renewed the passport of my son. However the British Consulate in Paris sent me someone else's new passport instead. It is quite worrying as to what someone can do once they have a passport, especially when the person who's passport it is does not even know that it is 'lost'

I tried to call the passport office (via the consulate) only to be requests for a credit card number, as they outsource the service and I must pay €1.30 per minute to tell them of their mistake!!

Today I was told by IPS that they posted my passport and supporting documents through what they thought was a secure place!!!
My supporting documents which included my marriage certificate were posted through my neighbours flat which has a different number at eye level on her door, luckily I got this back, but annoyed as i paid for secure postage.
Today I am told that my passport was posted through the communal unlocked porch door, that doesnt have my flat number on! its now gone missing and IPS have told me I will have to buy a new one!!!!!
How is this fair when they didnt post through my front door.
Very upset and angry, I dont have spare money to buy another one just yet and was meant to be going away for a break on 4th June, lucky I hadnt book hotel and travel as was going to do that today.