New passport

I would recommend going ahead and renewing your passport.

What country are you a citizen of?

Last time anyone mentioned anything around here, it sounded like in the U.S., they were not even accepting passport applications. You will need to look that up for the U.S. or whatever the appropriate country is.

Edit to add:

Here is the link for U.S. citizens. It doesn’t say not to send in passport application, but warns strongly that it is likely to be several months before you would get your passport and receive your documents back (birth certificate, etc)

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/passport-covid-19.html

Because of public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we have extremely limited U.S. passport operations. If you apply or renew now, you will experience significant delays of several months to receive your U.S. passport and the return of your citizenship evidence documents (such as birth certificates or naturalization certificates). Unless you have a life-or-death emergency, please wait until we resume normal operations to apply for or renew your passport.

West London, England? Do you want a UK passport or an American one?

West London, South Africa? A US passport or a South African one?

Hi thanks for the fast post... I live in London UK travelling to Europe at the end of the year

You live in London, but what country/ies are you a citizen of?

If you are US passport holder, I would definitely send in your renewal asap. They have been experiencing delays of months. I know of one person who sent renewal in in Feb and hasn't received her passport yet. There will be a tremendous backup when passport processing gets back up to normal.

Passport applications and coronavirus (COVID-19)

It is taking longer than usual to process applications because of coronavirus.

Do not apply unless you need a passport urgently for compassionate reasons, for example if a family member has died, or for government business.

Phone the Passport Adviceline to find out what to do.

The above from this site--- https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport

If my passport were not already (since early March) sitting in the black hole that is the Passport Office in Washington DC, I would hold onto it and pay the express handling fees once the office opens up again.

There's currently a 1.6 million passport application backlog for the USA and it's only been in the past week or so that State's been serious about even starting to process non-emergency passports again. (Due to the documents required for application like a birth certificate and how there wasn't a way for document security to be feasible if employees worked from home, processing has been at a dead stop since March.)

Thanks. In theory my passport should be valid, but it will expire close to my return date. We have Brexit to get over yet as well. As if the lockdown was not enough...

Thank you Selkie for that detail about the number in processing. I haven’t seen that kind of information anywhere before now. Wish I’d seen it last week...just sent in my renewal application. From what I’ve read elsewhere on this forum, I can’t imagine I’ll be heading to the UK this year after all.

Passport agencies are starting to reopen. We sent my Sons paperwork off on April 25th. Up until last week his application status said "Application Not Found In System." Now it says "In Process." The Passport sites are opening on different dates. I was told my Sons went to the site in Philadelphia. Site also says, passports will be processed on a "First In, First Out Basis." So, you had best get it in asap.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast/passport-agencies.html

My kids passports had ran out so on the off chance we still go on our end of July trip I went ahead and renewed on line. I submitted it on the 22nd May but my friend didn’t verify the identity until 28th May. I then got a quick automated request to send in my passports. It took just over a week for them to acknowledge they had received them. Haven’t heard any update since so keeping fingers crossed.

Note that the State Department is indicating that commercial services will not have preference over individual applications in the first-come first-served hierarchy. Only emergency situations.

OK.????
The OP is British.
The OP lives in England.
The OP even discusses getting past Brexit.

Then why is everyone responding with US passport information?????

I know we control much of the world (if only we could control the pathetic mind of Dufus Trump) but I trust everyone is aware the US does not control the issuance of British Passports to British citizens.

Just an update on my post above. Got an email today saying the passports were ready to be posted. So that will be about 3 weeks from when the ID was confirmed so as good as precovid times in terms of response ( this is UK passport)