Compensation Sought for UK Passport Delays

[Rimmer]

Compensation Sought for UK Passport Delays

A British House of Commons committee is demanding that British citizens who ended up waiting for three months or more for a new passport should be financially reimbursed. The Passport Agency in UK struggled with 550,000 applications last June and the committee says that many British citizens were left stranded and unable to travel. The MPs also complained that Passport Agency staff had received large cash bonuses in spite of the chaos.

Part of the problem was and is that full passports can no longer be issued anywhere in the world except the UK as part of a money-saving initiative to cut staffing by closing some consular sections in embassies abroad. The system is particularly complicated in Thailand where applicants now have to make a personal appearance (or appoint an agent) at Trendy Office in Bangkok, at a time agreed by officials, to hand in and later collect their new passport after the paperwork has been forwarded to UK. In some other countries, postal applications are acceptable but not in Thailand which is believed to have more than its fair share of problems including inadequate or even fake documentation. Currently, the British embassy website is suggesting a two months’ waiting period.

Keith Vaz, the House of Commons committee chairman, said “HM Passport Office should lose its agency status and be brought back under direct ministerial control following this appalling series of failures.” He added that there had been a shamefully poor service to an estimated 5.6 million British citizens living abroad. The MPs emphasized that they were particularly concerned that many people were out of pocket, forced to abandon travel plans or rebook air tickets. Several British applicants in Thailand even made a special trip to UK to take advantage of a supposedly fast-track upgrade there by paying a cash supplement. It is also known that the long delays meant that some British retirees, holding one-year visas in Thailand, were unable to process their applications in time at Thai Immigration and were forced to leave the country.

Full story:http://pattayatoday.net/news/latest-edition/compensation-sought-for-uk-passport-delays/

--PATTAYA TODAY 2014-10-03

[Jip99]

I rarely agree with Mr Vaz - but in this case I am 100% behind him.

[NanLaew]

Old news no? I recall hearing on Sky or BBC only a few days ago that an informal announcement was made to the effect that the UK Passport Office will close as a separate entity and come under the wing of the Home Office.

It has got conveniently buried in the noise of the Conservative Party Conference where they focused on Millibands 'forgotten' deficit speech. This in part to distract from Theresa May's initial comments in June, denying that there were any problems with overseas UK passport renewals.

[soihok]

I have written numerous letters, emails and had two phone conversations with HMPO on the matter. My disabled girl is residing in Thailand and I am living in Singapore. I'm not going to go through all the details on here again (see the current thread running in the visa section).

The present system has to change. Even though the UK government states provisions will be made for the disabled. Believe me - they don't give a toss.

[i claudius]

When did they ever paper shufflers 3d grade one and all