About two weeks ago I wrote a piece about passport prices being cranked up yet again.
At the time I said that I made a Freedom of Information request to the Identity and Passport Service to find out the unit cost of a passport; that is, how much it costs the IPS to actually make a passport.
Today I got a response, remember that a passport now costs £77.50:
Thank you for your e-mail of 7 July in which you ask for information on passport costs. Your request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
"I would like to know the unit cost (the cost of producing) a biometric passport as of 2009."
We believe that the information that you have asked for is already reasonably accessible to you. The question was raised by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne in the house of Commons and the response can be found in column WA53 on the Parliament website on the following link :-
Here
Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act exempts the Identity and Passport Service from complying with the duty to supply you with this information on the grounds that it is already in the public domain. Should you have difficulties in accessing this information by the means listed above please do not hesitate to contact me again.
So two fold really. First off a quick search of Google reveals this information to not be remotely 'reasonably accessible' to me. Do I read Hansard? Do I fuck. A sneaky, shitty way to hide information they simply don't want you to have.
Second, how much? £57 basic production cost is total bollocks. It's a notepad, A5, with a bit of laminate at the back and a chip in it. They are either being mugged by the printers, or they are hiding some costs.
The Foreign Office then whack a completely unexplained £12 on it, presumably for the cost of issuing passports in the various locations around the world. Strange that the IPS cannot take cash from other places, but it can have cash taken from it.
Even with this, we have £69. That is a profit of £18.50 each and every time someone has to get a passport. Where does this money go? Staff? I would hope not because that would take self-financing to a whole new level, a level that I do not believe any other state body is anywhere near. And it wouldn't cover the cost.
Last time I checked my passport wasn't made by fucking Moleskine
They deny the cost of a passport goes towards the setting up of the ID Card scheme. My arse. that is exactly what the profit is for. It is not, as Phil Woolas said, £18.50 worth of 'customer service', it is a tidy trick of turning a nice profit to pump into a scheme that no one wants.
So I repeat, when ID Cards are dropped, will the price of passports come down? Course they won't. And no one will even ask about it in the media.
Other than here. In fact I have contacted Baroness Miller of Chilthorne, a Lib Dem Peer, and asked her to find out the breakdown of this £57. What does it include, admin, staff, postage, Gold dust? Because I would really love to know how a passport can cost fifty-seven British notes to make, not RRP, to actually make it.
The Boatang has a roundabout way of kicking the state in the balls.
10 comments:
I think passports should be free.
To charge for them means that you cannot exercise your full rights as a British citizen to get the fuck out of this banana republic shit-hole populated by skag monkeys living off the taxpayer without shelling out some readies.
Hahaha,
Damn right, it is my right as a citizen to be able to fuck off out of here whenever I want
I'm still a bit taken aback by a notebook that costs 57 quid.
I'm told, by a German lady wot lives nearby ,that Germans have a very similar chipy "complicated" passport and it costs them equivalent of 8 quid. I'm told. So maybe borrocks of course.
anon, no the german passport costs about the same, maybe she means the german id card., yes just checked, the id card costs eight euros.
germans have to have id cards when living in germany. they have on it your photo, name. place of birth and current address, it contains no biometric information unlike the new passports. it has it's advantages and disadvantages but personally i cant think of any advantage other than proof of age and person. you practically have to show the id card in any setting requiring proof of id from pub to registering a car or even renting a flat or applying for a job even. as far as i remember you are required to carry one on your person at all times or have it easily available. there isn't really much you can do in germany without an id card in officialdom.
in the uk i have wondered if the greater draconian age checks are nothing more than to create the idea in kids and young people's heads the idea that that id cards are a good and necessary thing to have, for now i've seen in many places that because of a lack of such id you now have to 'look' older than 21 or even 25 in some places to get served with alchohol and the like. one way around it of course is to arm yourselves with a provisional driving license.
Interesting and informative posts, gentlemen, thank you for your contributions.
Come on...be fair...sumptuous faux-leather cover, hand-engraved lithographs of birds, curly script, gold-leaf lettering...that strange piece of metal in the back that looks like Nadine Dorries IUD...
That's worthy of the fucking Franklin Mint that bastard is...I'd pay fucking double...
Would I fuck.
Total rip off.
For £57 I would expect
Real leather
50,000 Nectar points
Gold leaf
Actually signed by the Queen 'Dear Kev, I hope this passport brings you lots of joy. Best wishes, Betsy x'
A little pull out section with 'I am a British citizen, please don't shoot.' in the world's most common languages.
And I'm off down holiday road.
yes I am watching Lampoon's vacation. Fucking love it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLiQBV6A7c
And I'm straight back to being a kid, pissing myself in my Hi-tops and hoody.
I love films that are super-dumb like that.
Ever seen 'Freddie Got Fingered'?
1* in the Radio Times - 'puerile' I believe they called it.
That'll do me.
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