Petition To Save High-Street Photo Jobs Sent To Prime Minister

A petition signed by over 17,500 people, which calls on the Government to change legislation that puts over 5,000 private sector photography jobs in danger as a result of policies introduced by the last Government, was delivered to the Prime Minister’s front door yesterday.

In 2009, the Government awarded the contract for providing ID photos for driving licenses to the Post Office. Since then, ID photos have been provided digitally and not from printed photos provided by high street photography outlets.

As a result, the Photo Marketing Association, which includes outlets which are dependent on the ID photo market for survival, say that up to 350 photographic shops in the UK are at risk of closure and over 5,000 jobs are on the line. In terms of revenue, this decision represents a loss of over £50 million to the industry.

The Photo Marketing Association’s solution is for scanners to be placed in every Post Office to allow the continued use of printed ID photographs.

The petition was delivered by the children of private sector photographers, accompanied by senior Tory backbencher Sir Paul Beresford MP, Mr Olivier Gimpel, Chief Operating Officer of Photo-Me and Mr Don Kennedy, Co- Founder of Snappy-Snaps.

For more information, visit: Save The Photographers