It was better when you could get kids on your own, and it would last 10 years.Not quite 'recently' but I renewed all my kids passports in April and had them in my possession within about a week of applying. A couple of days of that was fannying about trying to get them to accept the photos aswell.
Not really relevant to anything but how much of rip off is charging 2/3rds of the price for 50% of validity for kids?
Good reminder this thread need to get mine renewed for Bodo now, I see it is free if you are 96!