I've just renewed my passport, the laminate was coming away in the corner slightly but I took the risk and said the passport was fine - my view was that if there was a problem, they would let me know and I would do the full application. But then I had the time to do it if there was a problem. Interestingly, I filled the application on a Wednesday morning, sent off the old passport in the afternoon (next day delivery)...got a text lunchtime the following day saying it had been received....text that afternoon saying it had been checked and a text in the evening saying it was being printed....and finally it had been sent back to me. All in all pretty impressive and this was the standard service!

This was in contrast to the previous passport where the laminate eventually gave way exposing the photograph itself - I had ignored the growing damage for some time until departing Bulgaria, where the border police got very excited and made sure the damage was complete!