By quickie passports I think you mean "British Visitors Passports",which were quick to obtain (from a Post Office) and lasted just one year.
These ran from 1961 to 1995,and were dropped because they did not contain enough information.
As dzug says,your husband will need a full passport.
The passport service aims to return passports within 3 weeks (but this CAN take considerably longer) in busy holiday periods.
This page from the passport service deal with urgen passport applications.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport /Passports/howlongittakesandurgentappplication s/DG_174149