On 29 June 1999, thousands waited in rain outside British Passport Agency offices, with sleeping bags and folding beds appearing on pavements. The Independent described layered waiting: a queue to obtain a ticket that granted the right to join another queue. A courier with his 22-month-old daughter had spent fifteen hours over two days; another applicant was due to fly the following morning. The national backlog stood at 538,000. A troubled computer system, newly required children’s passports and a 20 per cent seasonal rise in demand pushed average processing in Liverpool from 11 to 41 days and in Newport from 15 to 38. This is related to Candidate Q10-004, but its evidence comes from the pavement rather than Parliament. Against official claims of unnecessary panic, applicants described arriving only after ordinary processing had already failed them for weeks.