IPS spent £38m on consultancy last year
The Treasury's publication of its Coins database of government finance has revealed details of the Identity and Passport Service's cashflow. The agency, which is responsible for issuing passports and identity cards – although the latter are about to be scrapped – spent £38m on consultancy and £275m on other non-capital purchases …
...can we get rid of this stupid f**king thing where if you don't spend your allocated budget, it gets cut the following year. That we way, maybe, just maybe, councils / goverment may actually stop spending on utter crap they don't need.
Having just renewed our passports (for a family of 4), I couldn't help thinking that £80 for a travel document that lasts 10 years is a bit steep.
A driving licence, for example, costs £50 for your first one and £20 to replace if you lose it.
Why the discrepancy?
This will be because they do a lot more checking than the DVLA, someone from IPS told me that they dont accept UK drivers licence as a supporting document for passport applications.
Its true you dont need to countersign your photo for renewal of a driving licence. Im not sure how easy it is to apply for a new drivers licence with false credentials though.
So for a passport renewal, at £80, they must be doing 4 times as much checking as they do when I lose my driving licence?
Perhaps, that or the DVLA subsidise your application by selling your details on.
Would be who the consultants are and how they connect to who's handing out all this money, Mr Cameroon may not be popular around the gin palace if he starts blocking billions of pounds in under the table deals disguised as consultant fees, although this can only be good for us tax payers.
First port of call I'd look at is BAE, a value for money study would probably implode.
"IPS – which is still listed as 'UK Passport Agency' in the Coins system – appears to be unusually exposed by the data's publication"
The IPS is there to stop the forrins getting in and every penny spent was a propaganda coup for the previous administration.
"the National Policing Improvement Agency's entries simply showed it receiving £490m in nine instalments, with no information on where this money was spent."
You don't need to know what the money was spent on. It's necessary. It's for national security. It's for your own good. You want better policing don't you? Or are you some kind of terrorist?
