[Regular readers will recall that the passport computer problem was caused by an upgrade to Y2K-ready computers.]

ISSUE 1561 Friday 3 September 1999

400 claim for losses as passport crisis ends By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor

UK Passport Agency What's new - Home Office

NEARLY 400 summer holidays were ruined by the crisis in the passport service, which the Government officially declared to be over last night.

The Home Office said the country's six offices can all now process applications within 10 days. Emergency arrangements that allowed post offices to renew passports for two years free of charge are to be withdrawn from Oct 2.

The measures were introduced almost two months ago as thousands of anxious travellers queued for hours amid fears that massive processing backlogs meant they would miss their holidays. At the time, there were more than 550,000 outstanding passport applications.

The Home Office has so far received 384 claims for compensation because a holiday was ruined by the delays. A further 900 claims have been lodged for exceptional expenses incurred travelling to and from a passport office.

The Government's policy is to pay compensation in full if errors by the agency resulted in a missed holiday. So far, #70,000 has been paid out, though not all claims have been processed. The 384 claims for lost holidays compares to only 70 payments last year, 50 the year before and 88 in 1996.

Bernard Herdan, the new chief executive of the Passport Agency, said every effort would be made to ensure a similar debacle did not occur next summer. "We are currently reviewing what lessons can be learned," he said.

4 August 1999: End of the line in sight for passport applicants / 25 July 1999: Computer firm fined #4.5m over passport bungle chaos / 11 July 1999: Passport Agency 'to be privatised' / 7 July 1999: Passports crisis seen months ago / 4 July 1999: Minister admits passport chaos blunder / 2 July 1999: Post Offices come to the rescue in passport crisis / 27 June 1999: Government to pay for holidays lost in passport chaos / 26 June 1999: Passport queue lengthens to 530,000 as crisis grows / 30 May 1999: Passport delays leave travellers up in the air

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 03, 1999

Answers

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Old Git:

Didn't the previous reported ( ~July 1, 1999? ) Y2K-related passport system failure occur in Switzerland?

As I recall, the Swiss issue on-the-spot passports and visas at their airports. It created quite a mess.

Never saw a follow-up on this incident. Was there one?

Regards, Bob Mangus

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-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), September 03, 1999.