Consular Services in Manchester: Hearing by Comites President Ardito Before the Chamber of Deputies Foreign Affairs Committee

Today, 26 February at 10:00, the III Committee on Foreign and EU Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies held a hearing with the President of the Comites of Manchester, Cesare Giulio Ardito, focused on the situation of consular services in Manchester.

The hearing was chaired by Hon. Giulio Tremonti and attended, both in person and remotely, by members of the Committee.

The analysis was introduced with the results of a statistical study published last December, prepared by Ardito as a joint initiative of the Comites and the Consulate. Based on this dataset, structural weaknesses in consular services in Manchester were highlighted, including long waiting times for access to services and difficulties in interaction with users, even via telephone channels.

It was also noted, based on the data and collected reports, that citizens experience significant difficulties and that the Manchester office appears understaffed compared to other comparable consular posts. At the same time, the productivity figures presented during the hearing clearly show the excellent work of the Consulate staff, indicating that the observed difficulties are not due to lack of effort or efficiency of personnel but to the structural gap between workload and available resources.

The hearing then continued with a question-and-answer session. The full recording is available on the Chamber of Deputies portal, along with the supporting documentation.

Video (Italian language)

Slides (Italian language)

Italiani nella circoscrizione consolare di Manchester - Audizione.pdf

Download PDF • 1.10MB

Full speech

Good morning, everyone. I am Cesare Giulio Ardito, President of the Comites of Manchester and a mathematician at the University of Manchester.

First, I thank you for giving attention to the situation of consular services in Manchester. I will go straight to the point: the message I want to convey is that the situation of consular services in Manchester is extremely problematic.

The key word is “extremely,” because we all know that the consular network in general faces structural understaffing issues. I know Parliament is aware of this and is working to address them. I have followed recent legislative interventions and very recent resolutions in this Committee where the Manchester Consulate was explicitly mentioned.

I will mainly refer to a statistical study I conducted, as a joint initiative supported by both the Comites and the Manchester Consulate, primarily based on AIRE data.

Before proceeding, let me also thank you for choosing to hear from the Comites. Comites are elected volunteer bodies in all consular districts with a sufficient number of Italians. They serve as a channel for citizens to raise issues and also carry out activities promoting language, culture, and historical memory of Italian emigration. However, in my view, their primary function—and the justification for their existence and funding—is representation. Thank you for allowing me to bring the voice of the local community to this Committee session.

Now, the study, with some slides to illustrate graphs.

The study was designed to provide a closer look at the Manchester consular district, which includes northern and central England. In most studies on Italians in England, this area is almost invisible due to numbers: London has nearly 300,000 Italians, and every dataset is weighted toward London, overshadowing the 123,000 citizens in other areas.

A brief history: in 2011 the Manchester Consulate was closed, and in 2014 the replacement consular office was also closed. Its reopening was decided in 2019 as part of measures to strengthen UK services in response to Brexit, under the so-called “Brexit Decree,” and took place in July 2022. During those years, the population grew dramatically. At closure, there were 28,369 AIRE registrants in the district; at reopening, 108,396; today approximately 123,500.

The recent increase is due to new births, internal migration from London to the North for economic reasons, and late AIRE registrations. Comparing with local authority data, I estimate around 10,000 additional compatriots not yet registered in AIRE, totaling approximately 135,000 people.

From the heat map, you can see that Italians are spread across the territory; there is no central hub. Notably, 76% live outside the metropolitan area of Manchester.

The average age is low, about 35 years, with one in four under 18. From a passport renewal perspective, a minor “counts double,” as their passports are valid for five years instead of ten. The demographic pyramid resembles more an hourglass than a traditional pyramid.

Origins of AIRE registrants are very diverse: only 44.9% were born in Italy, 31% in the UK, and 33.7% in other countries, mainly extra-European (Pakistan, India, Brazil, Ghana, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Morocco, etc.). My estimate is that over half come from secondary migration: people who moved to Italy from abroad, acquired Italian citizenship, and later emigrated again, often with family.

The consular network in the territory includes the career Consulate in Manchester, four honorary offices (Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), two consular correspondents without fingerprint machines, and consular missions created recently to cover “red zones” poorly served by existing offices, which this year will be organized with the Comites.

Key figures: 123,500 Italians plus ~10,000 unregistered; one in four under 18; roughly half from secondary migration from extra-European countries. These factors complicate consular practices, especially with documents from non-European countries.

Numerically, the Manchester Consulate ranks 20th globally for AIRE registrants, 7th for passports issued (11th in 2025), 1st in productivity per employee, and 3rd in passport-to-resident ratio, yet 42nd for number of staff. Recent modest staff increases still leave it far below ideal.

Despite high productivity, citizens report long waits, difficulty making appointments, unresponsive phone lines, and delayed email responses. The three main ways to renew passports are:

1. In-person at the Consulate (appointments via Prenot@mi portal, often sold out in minutes).

2. Through honorary consulates (less pressure but extra fee of ~€50 and 8-month processing).

3. Renewal in Italy (requires travel and varies by police station).

   
   

These limitations affect all other services. Identity cards, citizenship, civil registration, and notarial services face long delays. Phone lines are open only two hours per week, emails often auto-reply, and vulnerable citizens face the greatest difficulty. Delays can also lead to legal disputes and urgent requests, further straining consular resources.

Examples of impact: families with multiple passports cannot coordinate appointments; ill individuals face delays for treatment; a newborn without dual citizenship was left without documents due to repeated processing delays, with tragic consequences.

My assessment: the Consulate does everything possible. Productivity and efficiency are among the world’s best, yet citizens perceive services as slow and inaccessible. Current operations resemble a war economy: internal resources reorganized to focus on passports at the expense of everything else.

The underlying cause is understaffing, despite the significant investment made to reopen Manchester Consulate. A modest increase in resources could fully capitalize on existing efforts.

Manchester requires a Consulate: no cultural institutes, Italian schools, or other Italian institutional presence exist - only the Consulate. During its closure, the territory suffered from disconnection among local Italian communities. Adequate resources would allow the Consulate to expand cultural, event, and coordination activities, similar to London.

I urge two immediate actions:

1. Permanent strengthening of staff, recognizing the current understaffing.

2. A task force to clear the backlog of postal applications, which paralyzes the Consulate and cannot be managed with ordinary resources.

   
   

The Comites has raised these points annually in coordination meetings at the London Embassy, in letters, and through the General Council of Italians Abroad, approved unanimously over the past two years.

In conclusion, Manchester faces extraordinary difficulties, increasingly exacerbated by the growing backlog.

I remain available for any questions or clarifications. Thank you again for allowing the Comites of Manchester to represent citizens directly in this Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.