The holiday plans of thousands of Britons could be disrupted this summer because of strike action by Passport Service workers.

Around 3,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union working at regional passport offices as well as 68 interview offices will walk out from today in a dispute over pay and office closures.

The strike is expected to last three days but could cause wide spread disruption in what is one of the busiest times of the year. On average around 16,500 passports are issued every day by the Passport Service, but this figure is much higher ahead of the peak summer holiday period.

The seven regional passport offices affected by the strike are: London, Liverpool, Belfast, Glasgow, Peterborough, Newport and Durham.

The dispute at the Identity and Passport Service centres around a below-inflation 2.5 percent pay offer, and concerns that resources are being diverted from passport processing to the introduction of ID cards.

The National Identity Scheme is expected to be introduced from 2011. It will offer British nationals a choice of a separate identity card, passport or both.

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