Tomorrow's Electronic Telegraph:

ISSUE 1614 Tuesday 26 October 1999

Passport fee may rise to pay for chaos By Robert Shrimsley, Chief Political Correspondent

HOLIDAYMAKERS face having to pay for sorting out the summer chaos at the Passport Agency.

Home Office and agency officials are discussing plans to raise the #21 application fee by up to #8 to cover the #5 million emergency measures introduced by Jack Straw, the Home Secretary. About 400 extra staff were taken on to clear the backlog.

Other costs included compensation and the price of sending passports by courier to people stranded at Dover. A report due out tomorrow by the National Audit Office, an independent financial watchdog, is expected to condemn agency inefficiency.

Tories said last night that any plan to increase the passport fee was "unacceptable." David Lidington, home affairs spokesman, said: "The public has already borne the brunt of Jack Straw's mismanagement of the agency."

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 25, 1999

Answers

"Punish the innocent..."

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), October 27, 1999.