TO ASSUAGE the fury of the 530,000 applicants stuck in the equivalent of a seven-week backlog at the UK Passport Agency, the government has agreed to pay compensation to people who miss their holidays because theirs did not arrive in time.

Big deal!

This isn't real compensation but passing the buck and a potential bill for millions that comes with it to either the taxpayer or future applicants who will have to pay increased fees in order to fund the pay-outs for these cock-ups.

The fault, we are told, lies with the Agency's new computer system and the upsurge in applications because children must now have their own passport.

Why on earth, then, aren't the bright sparks at the computer firm being made to pay?

And why are not the clever sorts, who insist that tiny babies, little tots and every other minor must be classed as passport-holding independent travellers, being sacked for adding to the chaos?

Why should the innocent get the pain and not those to blame?

I thought the Home Office, which presides over this mess, was supposed to see that justice is done.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.