Price of passport rises by a third to fight fraud
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Your support makes all the difference.The price of a standard passport will rise 36 per cent from 2 October, nearly 13 times the rate of inflation, to pay for new anti-fraud measures.
The price of a standard passport will rise 36 per cent from 2 October, nearly 13 times the rate of inflation, to pay for new anti-fraud measures.
The service allowing travellers to amend the details on their travel documents is to be scrapped. Brides or parents who wish to add children to their documents will have to buy a new 10-year passport, which has gone up £9 to £42, instead of paying a £22.50 amendment fee. And the cost of a child's passport will rise 32 per cent from £19 to £25, a Home Office spokesman said.
This is the second major price hike in less than 11 months. Last November the price of adult passports rose by 10 per cent and children's by 19 per cent. A 48-page "jumbo" passport will cost £54.50, up from £40.
More than half of the extra cash raised will help to pay for projects such as the introduction of "biometric" details in each passport; a microchip could hold fingerprints or an iris scan, for example. It will also fund fraud investigation units in passport offices around the country and better staff training, ministers said.
The cost of getting your passport in a hurry will also rise. The guaranteed same-day premium service will increase from £78 to £89 for a standard passport, from £85 to £95.50 for a 48-page passport and from £64 to £71 for a child's passport. Documents ordered through the one-week "fast track" service will cost £70, up from £63.
Collective passports, for school and youth group trips, stay at £39. The Passport Service said the rise would also help to pay off its £26m debt to the Treasury for a 1999 computer crisis by October 2004.
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