British Passport Prices, On The Up
The increase last October from £51 to £66 was widely accepted without too much fuss due to the extra money going towards increased security measures for British nationals. Included in these measures were more extensive background checks, face-to-face interviews for first time passport applicants and the introduction of the e-passport scheme, a passport which contains a digital photograph stored on a chip. With these extra security measures the general opinion of the nation seemed to be that the prices were worth paying.
This years increase may be less widely accepted, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced that it needed the extra funds to help British nationals abroad. It’s reported that as the number of Brits travelling has increased then so has the number of people losing passports and requiring help for things like hospital visits when abroad. Surely it makes sense though that if more people are travelling, then more people require a passport in the first place so more passports will be issued, increasing total income? A lot of people would see this increase as just being another part of rip-off Britain where large price hikes are just part of normal day to day life. It does seem rather stupid to have the casual family holidaymaker pay for the stupid few who are likely to lose a passport or require assistance in some war-torn country that they were advised not to visit in the first place.
Anyway, I think most people could just about stomach a 40% price rise over 2 years in the name of security, but in the name of bailing out the stupid few I’m not so sure.
