Passport officers have announced a strike that risks plunging the processing of applications into chaos ahead of the summer.

The Public and Commercial Services Union has confirmed that more than 1,000 members working in passport offices up and down the country are set to take five weeks of industrial action from next month.

People working in passport offices in Durham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newport, Peterborough and Southport will walk out from Monday, April 3 until May 5.

Union members in the Passport Office in Northern Ireland are currently being balloted and may well join the action subject to the result of their ballot, which closes at the end of Friday.

The action, says the union, is a 'significant escalation' of a long running dispute with the government over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.

PCS says it expects the five-week walkout to have a huge impact on the delivery of passports as the summer approaches and increasing numbers of people require new documents in order to travel this year.

Union General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This escalation of our action has come about because, in sharp contrast with other parts of the public sector, ministers have failed to hold any meaningful talks with us, despite two massive strikes and sustained, targeted action lasting six months.

"Their approach is further evidence they’re treating their own workforce worse than anyone else. They’ve had six months to resolve this dispute but for six months have refused to improve their 2% imposed pay rise, and failed to address our members’ other issues of concern.

"They seem to think if they ignore our members, they’ll go away. But how can our members ignore the cost-of-living crisis when 40,000 civil servants are using foodbanks and 45,000 of them are claiming the benefits they administer themselves?"

Last year the Passport Office came under fire from holidaymakers and MPs as the wait to get new documents stretched past 10 weeks.

A combination of staff sickness caused by Covid-19, a large number of people with expired passports because of the pandemic and the reopening of travel routes led to huge delays for applications ahead of last summer.

More than five million people were estimated to have delayed their applications and allowed documents to expire during 2020 and 2021 as travel restrictions around the globe halted the majority of trips and holidays.