Yes, only done via the UK since some time last year. The details are on the website:

https://www.gov.uk/browse/abroad/passports

4 weeks they reckon for Switzerland.

Thank you for the Weblink MF. I have visited the site, and am amazed to learn that an "Overseas" British passport costs £147.86, whilst a UK resident British National only pays £72.50!

Yeah, it does seem high in comparison, bearing in mind that it's only couriered one way. Can't think there are any other hidden costs between doing an overseas and an "at home" one to justify nearly £50 extra excl. the courier delivery charges. Bit cheeky really. A case of the Brits abroad getting a raw deal from the UK government. Worth making a compliant to the PM/Home Office about it.

Edit: Sent a query to the Home Office asking for an explanation of the price differences. Will be interesting to see what they say.

Double the price MF! I have also sent an email to the Secretary of State's office asking for an explanation as to the difference in the two tariffs. I would rather give the extra money to charity!

Here's the reply I got back this morning:

"Fees charged to British citizens applying overseas are based on the current costs of providing the service. As overseas volumes are much less than UK volumes it is harder to gain efficiencies. That is why we have taken the decision to repatriate the issuing of overseas passports to the UK. Once this has been completed this year, Her Majesty's Passport Office will be seeking to create closer alignment between the two sets of fees."

So they might come down once the process of getting all the services back to the UK is completed. I thought they'd done that last year, but it might only have been moving the Paris centre stuff back to the UK that was accomplished. Iirc there were 6 centres worldwide so the question now is how many have been moved and how many are still waiting?

Many thanks MF. Is the above sentence a convoluted way of saying that HMG is trying to make a profit out of issuing/renewing passports?!

My brother got his done in the UK using the slowest service. He sent on Monday and passport was back on Wednesday.

Made me feel like an idiot paying for the same day service!

Yeah, sounds like it. I can't see that the costs of dealing with a passport application are any different no matter when it comes from. The basic processing is the same surely so how can one sent from abroad cost them more money to process. It's only the extra courier fees to get it back to you which would be different and you have to pay extra for those anyway. Think I'll drop them another query asking them to tell me the differences.

Good idea!

I had to replace mine in 2007 - I did it at the British Consulate in Geneva (you could still do it there at the time). Not only was I treated to a lecture on how my passport was an important document and I should have taken better care of it (it had been through the wash) but was charged 298CHF for the privilege

Did you use this service? I posted mine off last week, know it's been delivered so just wondering how long it took for you. Price difference is taking the piss a bit in all honesty but hey ho... just one meal I can't go out for.

When a friend presented a badly battered passport at immigration at Heathrow airport, she was told that it wasn't hers, but belonged to Her Majesty and she should treat it as such.

I've just (16th Jan) sent mine off to Durham for renewal. I'll keep you posted.

No, I renewed mine when it was still done via Paris. It took about 3 weeks, but that's because I made a mistake with my credit card number and they had to come back to me about it. Otherwise, I'd have had it a few days earlier.

that's actually true, a passport is the property of the UK Government, and individual never actually "owns" it.

MF, I received an email message from the Passport Office this morning in reply to my email asking for an explanation of the cost of "Overseas" renewal costs, and guess what......the message is identical to the one sent to you! So, it would be reasonable to assume that we are not the only ones who have written to complain!

I am also peeved that the term "British National" is used throughout the info on the Passport Renewal website. At the limit, I am willing to accept that I am British Citizen, of English origin!

Just got my new one from the UK. Was amazed that it came by DHL, and then a day later a 2nd package - this time the old passport with its corners clipped. Turnaround was 3-4 weeks, as expected. During that time I crossed the border every day without it .

The latest ones are really beautiful, IMHO. Extremely hard to forge, to the point that the photo is hard to recognize, due to silvery holograms or whatever covering parts of me.

Jobsworth... would have told them if the leech queen wants it back she is welcome to come and collect it.

I had another look around on the internet and did find that the consolidation of the service is supposed to be taking place within this financial year, i.e. up to beginning of April 2014. So maybe we'll see prices coming down shortly after that. I did a random entry of some countries around the world just to see if a different figure/instructions came up but they were all the same. £128 and sent to the UK for processing so I'd say the consolidation should be done by now.

Received the new one this morning by DHL. So that's exactly four weeks door to door.

Just got mine today (good day to be off work sick). Pain-free (apart from the price!).