UK Passport Fees To Rise Again

The cost of an adult passport will increase from £66 to £72 this October, the third price rise in under two years.

FCO figures show that 65 million trips per year are made by Britons, three times more than a three-fold rise in 20 years. The price increase was requested by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to raise money to cover the cost of helping British travellers who get into difficulty abroad, such as lost passport, hospital bills, natural hazards and terrorist attacks.

Currently the 200 British consular posts around the world deal with 3.5million enquiries and the cost of dealing with these incidents is funded by part of the passport fee.

The last passport price increase was in October 2006, when fees were raised from £51 to £66 to pay for improved background checks on applicants, face-to-face interviews for first-time passport applicants and the introduction of e-passports, which have a digital photograph in a microchip stored in the passport.

A child's passport will cost £46.37, up from £45 and a “Jumbo” passport, which has 48 pages instead of 32, will cost £137.16, up from £114.50.

Those who wish to apply for a passport need to collect the standard application form at the Post Office, order it online at www.passport.gov.uk or call the IPS on 0870 521 0410. The Check and Send Service, which costs £7 and is available at Post Offices and Worldchoice travel agents, will verify your photo and application form to reduce the likelihood of the application being turned down.

15 June 2007