Posted on 2014-10-10 | 11:25

Roger has welcomed the decision by the Home Office to take the passport service back under its control. The passport service was outsourced as part of the Government’s quasi-privatisation of public services, which resulted in a backlog of more than 537,000 passport applications in late June.

Said Roger: “This was another classic example of the mania of the Tory/Lib Dem Government and neoliberal economic deregulators to privatise and outsource public services, on the bogus pretence that it would be more efficient and give better value for money.

“The outsourcing of the passport service bought no benefit whatsoever to customers. It resulted in the closure of 22 passport centres and the loss of 550 jobs, as well as the closure of many overseas units. When this daft policy descended into crisis absolute panic took over, and temporary staff were brought in without experience and passport applications were not being properly vetted. Our society may pay for this in the future if it turns out that a passport has been issued to somebody who poses a threat to the British public.

“The only beneficiary of this madcap policy were the Chief Executive and managers of the privatised service who, no doubt, have received generous bonuses for hitting so-called ‘performance targets’, although the Government will not reveal whether this is the case on the spurious grounds of ‘contract confidentiality’!”