Passports fees confirm rip off Britain?
Thanks to Chris Lightfoot for researching the cost of adding biometrics to passports.
The home office regularly insists that most of the costs of identity cards will have to be spent anyway because of requirements to add biometrics to passports – these requirements come from EU regulations, and sometimes the US visa waiver scheme is mentioned although that isn’t really a requirement per se.
The proposed increase of the price of a UK passport to cover these changes is £51 – i.e. the new passport charge is £93, current charge is £42.
A quick look at other countries who are adding biometrics to passports shows the increase is substantially less:
Germany: an increase of €36 (£23)
Australia: AUS$ 19 (£8)
Are we getting some really bad value for money here, or are the increased passport fees actually there to subsidise the National Identity Card scheme?
June 27th, 2005 at 16:23
The cost of a UK Passport rose from £31 to £42 in October 2003 (21% increase), allegedly to pay for extra “security”.
Do not forget, that a first time Passport applicant may have to fork out for a “full” Birth Certificate costing £11.50, in order to get his or her Passport, as the old “short (abbreviated)” Birth Certificate is no longer valid for this purpose as of February last year.
http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/2004/02/passport_office.html
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/births/obtainingbirthcertificates/whatdetails.asp
“Short certificate
Details contained on a short version of a birth certificate include the baby’s names and surname, sex, date of birth and the name of the registration district and sub-district where the birth took place.
Full certificate
Details contained on a full birth certificate include all the above plus
exact place of birth
father’s name (if given at time of registration), place of birth and occupation
mother’s name, place of birth, maiden surname and, after 1984, occupation
Please note: registrations made before 1969 do not include details of the parents’ place of birth and mother’s occupation.”
N.B. the cost of a “No longer valid for Passport applications” Short Birth Certificate is also now £11.50, the same as the Full Certificate.
June 27th, 2005 at 17:33
…and you try getting a Full Certificate if you’re adopted… not so easy.
June 28th, 2005 at 18:02
Turns out that the Biometric Passport bit is only £21 of incremental cost. How ~40% constitutes ‘the bulk of’ as Clarke was still claiming on this morning’s news, I don’t know.
June 29th, 2005 at 12:15
Sorry to intrude on this post off topic but I wanted to subscribe to your RSS feed, which appears to be busted.. Can you please fix it as I do not like to receive emails but prefer RSS feeds. Also, could you have an email visible somewhere for readers of this blog to reach the blog admin?
Thanks!
June 29th, 2005 at 17:20
Sorry you are having problems Adriana – please tell me which RSS feed you are having trouble with?
All queries about the NO2ID website and blogs should be sent to webmaster@no2id.net.
August 5th, 2008 at 17:32
Passport prices, what a rip off!! Just tried to change my wifes name on her passport after we got married, informed cant be amended for free have to pay for a new passport at a cost of £72. My wife however still has 5yrs on her current passport, informed that we still have to pay the full amount, so losing out on the 5yrs we have previously payed for. yet again they are pocketing more money from us. What will ID cards achieve, better security no, prevent benefit fraund of immigrants probably not, the foot of the cost again with the normal law abiding public, YES!!!
February 24th, 2009 at 17:13
A BIT OF PAPER COST THAT MUCH????
I HAVE LONG SUSPECTED THEY ARE ALL HAVING A LAUGH – AT OUR EXPENSE OF COURSE.