Drunken Revellers Put A Strain On The Premiums Expats Pay For Assistance Abroad

[harald finehair]

May not be Thailand related but I thought it was intersting any way....

The booze culture in Britain is a well-known phenomenon, and something many foreigners fail to understand

Drunken revellers put a strain on the premiums expats pay for assistance abroad

The propensity for Brits to drink themselves into a stupor has often been blamed on the previous licensing laws, which meant downing as much as you could before 11pm, unless you went onto a club.

Now there is 24 hour opening, you would expect the level of alcohol-fuelled violence in particular to have dropped if that really was the case. But in Kent, at least, alcohol-related violence has risen by around a quarter since the new longer opening hours were introduced.

So there must be more to it than that. To be fair, perhaps it is too soon to really assess the full impact of how the new laws will change people's behaviour.

You might think all this sounds very far removed from issues facing expats, but you would be wrong.

Last week the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) analysed the way in which the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) provided services to British nationals abroad. You may not be surprised to learn stag and hen parties, which are increasingly enjoyed overseas thanks to cheaper air travel, are considered a particular problem.

There are 13.2 million Brits living overseas according to FCO figures, with around 65 million visits abroad by Brits recorded in 2004/5 - six per cent up on the previous year, and more than one visit for every person in the country, including children and the elderly.

In the same year, the FCO through its British consulates abroad, dealt with 84,000 new assistance cases. The PAC report states: "Changing the behaviour of those who travel abroad is a significant challenge. Though public awareness of the Department's travel information is improving, the proportion of people who read and act on the advice is still low. Advertising campaigns targeted at those groups who most need to be influenced, such as stag and hen parties, and the publication of the Rough Guide to Safer Travel, aim to reduce the number of assistance cases where better preparation before travelling, or more responsible behaviour once abroad, may have avoided the problem."

The consular staff are able to levy a call-out charge to respond to requests for assistance of £84.50 per hour. But this has only been charged in 323 cases out of the 84,000.

The FCO said it "recognises more use could be made of this charge to recover the costs of assisting travellers whose lack of preparation or irresponsible behaviour abroad has contributed to their own predicament". So why hasn't it? We are always told the resources in government departments are stretched, and it means that the State is digging ever deeper into our pockets to make ends meet.

Take, for example, the passport services provided to expats abroad through the various overseas posts. In 2004/5, the FCO issued 453,000 full and 11,000 emergency passports from 104 out of its 233 overseas posts.

If you are an expat overseas, you are charged an extra £9.65 whether you deal with the FCO, or the United Kingdom Passport Service in the UK. That is a 64 per cent premium on top of the charge made to Brits in the UK for the same service.

The ability to get a passport at a remote location rather than through the UK has been considered "a matter of choice, not necessity" as it provides "a more convenient service for customers". That is probably the case. But the FCO has agreed to consider allowing British nationals living abroad to choose to apply for a cheaper passport from the UK, "but has expressed a concern about the possible effects on its own funding". No wonder. If all of the passports issued remotely at the extra charge of £9.65 a go were issued more cheaply in the UK, the FCO would lose nearly £4.5 million a year, and that is without even considering the premium paid on passports issued through the UK.

But what exactly are expats paying the extra for? Well, the report states that this premium "pays for assistance work and includes a provision for responding to major emergencies overseas".

So, if you know anyone planning to go on a stag or hen do it may just be worth pointing them in the direction of the FCO website to check on the travel advice, so the premium expats pay for "assistance work" goes towards assisting them, rather than a few drunken revellers

.......... HF