PARTY REVELLERS who find themselves in trouble abroad could soon find their night out costs them more than their dignity. People enjoying one of the increasingly popular boozy holidays in Spain are notorious for waking up with a hangover and no passport. However, in the near future they could find themselves landed with an 84 pound an hour bill for consular time, in order to cover the cost of such services as replacing lost passports or tracking down hotels and lost companions.
Low-cost flights have helped make stag and hen parties popular in resorts such as Majorca. The new measure is an effort to get tough on some of the “appalling” behaviour of some British tourists. Public Accounts Committee chairman, Edward Leigh, said: “Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) consular staff increasingly have to deal with the appalling results of British tourists carousing abroad. Where our nationals have landed themselves in trouble as a result of their own irresponsibility, the FCO should not hesitate to charge them for its services.”
