Following on from this post, The UK Treasury Department has now officially given authority to regulate travel insurance policies sold with packaged holidays.

The decision came about after British travelers made complaints that they were having problems making claims as they were not correctly covered by the insurance policies they took out as part of a holiday package.

The FSA said they would:

“review the proposals following the next stage of public consultation by HM Treasury. If the decision is confirmed, the FSA will itself consult with industry and consumer bodies towards the end of the year on the regulatory approach it would take”

The Association of British Insurers welcomed the decision as they have long called for customers to receive the same level of consumer protection regardless of how they buy their travel insurance. They are also interested in ensuring that the new regime will benefit customers rather than adding costs in a competitive market.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health said:

“The FSA will need to ensure that the regulation of all travel insurance is proportionate to reflect the low level of potential customer problems associated with this product, and to ensure that customers are not deterred from buy travel insurance”

Source: Insurance Journal

John Tincey, Vice chairman of the Immigration Service Union said: “There is going to be chaos in the summer”.

This is due to new passport checks for people entering the UK.

Checks for passengers with older passports generally take around 4 seconds to process, however, the new laser scanning machinery, designed to read data in biometric (fingerprint, voice, DNA or physical appearance, such as facial image) passports will double the time passports take to process.

A spokesman for the Government’s Border and Immigration Agency said:

“While allowing most passengers into the UK quickly, thorough checks are necessary to identify criminals, prevent illegal immigration and protect the public. We make no apologies for enforcing our borders.”

Source: The New Scotsman

The Government have announced that Passport fees will be rising from October 4th 2007.

Standard Adult Passport fees will increase by £6 from £66 to £72

Child passports will increase by £1 from £45 to £46

Jumbo passports will rise by £8.50 from £77 to £85.50

The Identity and Passport service said:

“These increases have been introduced by the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] to cover the growing cost of providing consular assistance to British passport holders overseas,”

65 million Brits travel overseas a year, although most people have a trouble free time, occassionally things do go wrong according to Lord Triesman, Foreign Office minister.

“Whether dealing with the victims of crime, sickness or other unforeseen circumstances, consular officials are at the forefront of providing assistance to distressed British nationals.”