To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his most recent estimate is of the number of days on average it takes to (a) process a new passport application by post and (b) renew a passport by post; and if he will make a statement. [123580]

In the week ending 6 July the average processing time for a single straightforward, properly completed application made by post was five days for a new passport and four days for a renewal. It is not possible to state the average time for processing non-straightforward applications as this depends on the time it takes to resolve queries on these applications.