The new increase means that British adults will have to pay GB pound 72 for a new ten year passport, representing a 70% rise in less than two years. Until December 2005, a standard passport cost just GB pound 42.
Foreign Office Minister Lord Triesman said that the rise is to fund consular assistance for the growing number of UK tourists travelling abroad.
“The consular premium increase will allow us to continue to provide world class consular support and to invest in bettering that service” he said. The fee that passport holders pay towards consular assistance has not increased since 2003/04, when it rose by 25p on an adult standard passport.
Under the new pricing scheme, a fast-track adult passport will cost GB pound 97 and a five year passport for under 16s will now cost GB pound 46. The last set of rises in October 2006 was said to cover the cost new security measures and interviews for first-time applicants.
The price rise follows a government report in May which estimated that the total cost of providing UK and Irish nationals with passports and ID cards would hit GB pound 5,420 million when the new scheme is introduced.
Phil Booth from the campaign group NO2ID described the move as “the most egregious bit of accounting the British public has seen so far” in the government’s introduction of the ID system.
“A few months ago we saw the government dump half a billion pounds of the cost of the scheme onto the Foreign Office, and now we see the British public picking up the cost in October”.
Booth also added that the new rise will push the cost of the compulsory ID card and passport over the GB pound 100 mark when it is introduced.