The Enquirer has been covering the chaos since December when the renewal system collapsed delaying the issue of cards to thousands of plant operators.

NOCN has now posted a public apology on its website.

The awarding organisation said: “On 1 December 2019 NOCN Group fully took over the issuing of cards from CITB.

“Much time was put into our systems by both NOCN and our supporting service providers to ensure the transfer would occur as well as possible.

“There have been a number of data/administrative/technical issues that have occurred due to the in flight transfer of such large and complicated card schemes.

“This has resulted in a backlog in processing applications that were made in November and December 2019.

“We are very sorry for the impact of this on customers’ ability to work and the frustration that this is causing.

“We are working very hard, together with our service providers to rectify this problem as quickly as possible. CITB are being especially proactive and providing substantial support.

“Please be reassured that an emergency plan has been put in place and a taskforce deployed to get on top of the backlog as soon as possible.”

The Enquirer understands that a raft of temporary staff have been taken on to speed-up the issuing of cards with 1,000 processed last Friday alone.

Individuals and companies are also being urged not to use the historic 0844 premium-rate phone numbers for queries but the cheaper 0300 numbers detailed here.