To expect that our new passports will be printed in the UK

Nothing that can be done here should be done abroad.

Thank you for the information durhamjen, but you are patronising in the extreme to other posters. YES, people care a lot about the utilities and the train companies being owned or contracts given to other countries. It’s maddening to see the profits hived off to other countries, but there’s nothing they can do about it, any more than they can anything about the passports issue. I for one resent spiralling costs with poor service on the trains when services are apparently much better and cheaper in the service provider countries. What would you suggest I do about it? Indeed what do you suggest I (or others) do about the passport issue?
This thread is about passports and the possible awarding of the contract to a French company who have put in a (probably deliberately) undercut bid.

It was a closed bidding process and is for a contract of several years. The printing only relates to the blank document and contains no personal data - this will be entered in the UK. What's so special about having it printed in the UK anyway? - it is only a glorified pass book.

This is just the kind of thing that probably fuelled the “leave” vote .

I really don’t trust such a massive price difference ? It seems fishy to me . Are French/Dutch employment costs so much less than ours ? I doubt it . Or is it (as I think it is) and they either can’t really do it for that money or they are being financed by their government .

Have they budgeted in the savings the cost of 600 people being made redundant plus the stress and unhappiness of loosing their jobs.

As someone else said.......if we were not leaving the EU we wouldn't need new passports at all. But it does seem crazy to get something so important and connected with security to be printed outside our own country. If the government is compelled to do this under EU rules about tendering, then maybe they will change it if and when (sadly in my mind) we actually leave. But it doesn't look good to British voters right now!

Im not sure its got anything to do with EU rules and tendering. it's to do with market forces and giving tenders to the organisation that gives the cheapest price. I'm not a fan of this approach to business, especially as it relates to public services.
I'm finding it hard not to chuckle that Leavers are outraged our new passports are to be made in France. Well in fact, I've stopped trying not to chuckle.

Seems our government doesn’t want the state to own railways, utilities etc, but it’s quite happy for foreign companies owned by foreign states to own them. Bit ironic that?

I have just returned from a week in Toulouse and it made me realise how we in Britain obey the 'rules' and the French don't. For example, smoking is carried on as it always was, and there were no safety barriers round an open manhole on the pavement - just 2 examples of ignoring 'health and safety' and 'risk assessment'. I also saw very few faces that weren't white. So why should we follow procurement rules when the French just do their own thing?

Smoking bans and much health and safety legislation determined by individual countries not the EU. Just shows how brainwashed we are that the EU made all our laws.

If you went to some parts of the UK you wouldn’t see many non white faces either. What’s that got to do with anything?

My understanding is that the deal has not been finally sealed yet. Is that innaccurate, please?

I watched Martin Sutherland, CEO, from the British firm, De la Rue being interviewed on BBC Breakfast time yesterday 22/3/18.
He said they were a very successful company and jobs were not in jeopardy over the loss of this passport contract.
He had been assured by those dishing out the contract that it was awarded elsewhere.
A short time later a ( yet another ) mealy mouthed politician was interviewed on the subject. He insisted that there was another layer in the decision making process to be explored and that the award had not been finalised.
Perhaps that layer is changing their mind due to the furore being stoked up.
For me, I don't care who gets the contract, though I would like an explanation from De La Rue how they can find it to be acceptable to put in a bid which is reported to be anything between £50,000,000 and £120,000,000 higher than their competitors.
France and Germany do not allow foreign companies to print their passports citing security issues.
As the establishment haven't got a clue as to who is already in this country I can understand the British government giving this condition a miss.

Yes, holdingontometeeth, that is a problem caused by this and previous governments in this country, they do not have a clue who is in the country. Is that not absolutely deplorable! But of course, this thread is about who will print the new passports for the UK, and without any doubt in my mind, I think they should be printed in the UK. The potential for illegal acquisition of UK passports, if printed outside the UK, would be much easier, and therefore the security reasons used by other governments as to why their passports should be printed in the home country, are indeed valid. Why I wonder do the British government think this is a risk worth taking. We already have more than enough foreign criminals in the country, in particular, in our prisons.
As to the colour. I really don't care.

a lot of the Gateshead company's business is making banknotes for other countries - do you think they shouldn't do that?
www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/22/de-la-rue-the-british-money-maker-that-lost-uk-passport-contract
"the Home Office said the decision to pick a preferred bidder in the tender would save taxpayers about £120m over the five years of the contract."
would you prefer to pay more in taxation or remove more funds from the nhs, social services, transport etc?
www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/22/contract-to-print-uk-passports-abroad-will-save-120m

I wouldn't be at all surprised if, when the foreign company 'discovers' some way down the line that its tender was unrealistic, our government has to pick up the pieces at taxpayers' expense.

Illegal people in the UK cost a huge amount, and if working illegally do not pay a single penny in income tax, or NI contributions. But they cost in health care, education etc.
No I do not think passports should be printed in other countries, the security risk is real.

Please don't quite the Guardian to me, it's a left wing paper, and indeed like all other papers, tells a story with it's one preferred bias.

My thoughts exactly MamaCaz and there is no way a contract could be £120 million astray. Just think about it . I’m convinced the French company are being subsidised by their government .

There are some nasty nasty racist comments on this thread and a whole raft of unverifiable/ unwarranted facts and assumptions! What an awful place GN can be sometimes

You’ve lost me maryeliza

Gillybob, I think,(but don't assume!), that Maryeliza54 is remarking on the rather nasty comments made by some posters ( not you) about colour of skin, and illegal immigrants and impacts on education, NHS etc. Same old racist rhetoric from some people which has nothing whatsoever to do with the colour of passports or who is going to print them. Shame on them

Iam, Mark Steel agrees with you.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/blue-passports-brexit-angry-brexiteers-nigel-farage-fish-french-a8268836.html

So do I.

Ha ha ...I live in France and the French think it is hilarious .....they don't believe anyone could make it up (mind you, at the moment we pay in excess of E160 to get our British passports !!) roll on the chance to become a Citizen of the EU instead .......

Sorry, but don’t see what’s nasty about saying illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes or NI but do use services . It’s a fact, not an opinion. The very fact that illegal immigrants are illegal says it all. Nothing to do with legal immigrants, talking about illegal immigrants. There’s a difference, and they do use services regardless of being illegal. And yes, Gransnet has become quite an intolerant place to be, a place where many preach tolerance, but sadly lack tolerance for views and even facts that don’t fit their view of how the world should be.