Hi All
From my personal experience, there’s only one way to guarantee you’ll get your passport in time (provided that you’ve had an application in for at least 6 weeks)
Call your local travel agent and get a booking itinerary in your name for an upcoming date, send this to the relevant passport office for an urgent upgrade and/or visit your nearest passport office. State you’re travelling in 48 hours and things escalate quickly (for a fee).
The safest way is to book a very cheap flight abroad (e.g £10 to Milan) and use that as proof. Itinerary worked for me.
Your passport should be printed that day or next at latest. Hope this helps