United Kingdom

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts) Fri Jun 20, 2014, 03:14 PM Jun 2014

Profit in passport chaos? Passport Office makes £13 per application

Nearly £1m spent on overtime each month after closure of overseas passport posts ramps up application numbers.

The Passport Office was accused of "profiting from public hardship" after it was revealed it is making a £13 surplus on every passport it issues.

MPs have been told that it is now having to spend nearly a £1m in a month on overtime as it attempts to deal with the chaos of 490,000 outstanding applications.

Detailed Passport Office figures also confirm that the closure of overseas passport posts has caused a significant increase in applications this year.

They show that overseas applications have risen by 40,000 a month compared with a year ago, while those from applicants in Britain are only 20,000 higher than a year ago.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/20/passport-office-chaos-applications-profit-surplus

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Profit in passport chaos? Passport Office makes £13 per application (Original Post) dipsydoodle Jun 2014 OP

That's all? Holy fuck, how high is their overhead. .. truebrit71 Jun 2014 #1

No wonder it got pricey. mwooldri Jun 2014 #2

The Passport Office is semi-privatised Anarcho-Socialist Jun 2014 #3

truebrit71

(20,805 posts)

1. That's all? Holy fuck, how high is their overhead. ..

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Fri Jun 20, 2014, 06:40 PM

Jun 2014

I got mine last year and it was fucking exorbitant....

mwooldri

(10,299 posts)

2. No wonder it got pricey.

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Sat Jun 21, 2014, 05:05 PM

Jun 2014

I had a problem last year - I'd lost my passport and "green card". Fortunately I didn't have any urgent travel needs so time wasn't a factor.

$160 and 8 weeks for a passport, then $450 and 6 weeks to get a Customs & Immigration Service appointment for biometrics and a 1 year temporary "green card" stamp in my passport.

Plus with the number of ex-pats, they're more likely to be more aware of difficulties with renewing passports lately and aren't leaving them to the last minute.

Anarcho-Socialist

(9,601 posts)

3. The Passport Office is semi-privatised

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Sun Jun 22, 2014, 11:09 AM

Jun 2014

Part of the initial application streaming work was originally contracted out to Siemens Information Systems under John Major. Siemens lost the contract to French outsource specialist Steria in 2009.

Steria outbid Siemens on the basis that they would make a huge profit by outsourcing all initial application streaming to personnel in India (cheaper than UK staff). Brown's ministers balked at the security implications of everyone's old passports and valuable ID documents being shipped off to India for initial streaming and then being shipped back again for Home Office civil servants to complete the ID checks.

Steria have a contract that is somewhat less profitable than they hoped and they are struggling to provide the volume and results that their bid promised the British government. The British government has closed many passport offices, cuts its overseas facilities and cut civil service staff and this has exacerbated the situation.

Reply to this discussion