British passport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

UK biometric passport, issued since 2006. Passports issued since 1988 have a similar format, but until 1997 had the words "European Community" written in place of "European Union" (Crown copyright).

British passports may be issued to people holding any of the various forms of British nationality.

1 Issuing
2 Lookalike passports
3 Endorsements
4 History
5 National identity registration
6 Fees
7 Vulnerabilties
8 See also
9 News stories
10 References

[edit] Issuing

In the United Kingdom, British passports (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) are issued by the Identity and Passport Service. In the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, British passports are issued by the Lieutenant-Governor.

In British Overseas Territories, British passports are issued by the Governor. In Commonwealth or foreign countries, they are issued by the Passport Section of a British Consulate, Embassy, or High Commission.

At present holders of the following forms of British nationality can apply for a British passport:

British citizens (GBR)
British Overseas Territories citizens (formerly British Dependent Territories citizens) (GBD)
British Overseas citizens (GBO)
British Subjects (GBS)
British Protected Persons (GBP)
British Nationals (Overseas) (GBN)

The three-character codes appearing after each type of nationality above are the ISO/IEC 7501-1 machine readable passport alpha-3 country codes of such British passports.

No British national has a legal right to be issued a British passport, except for British Nationals (Overseas) who have an entitlement to hold a British passport under article 4(2) of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986. All other British passports are therefore issued at the discretion of the government under the Royal Prerogative.

Right of abode, i.e., the right to enter and live in the UK freely, is only automatically held by British citizens, as well as by some British subjects and those other Commonwealth citizens who were patrials under the Immigration Act 1971.

[edit] Lookalike passports

British "look-alike" passport, issued to British nationals who are not European citizens

For the purposes of the European Communities treaties, the nationals of the United Kingdom comprise all British citizens, British Overseas Territories citizens by virtue of a connection with Gibraltar and British subjects with right of abode in the UK (mainly, but not exclusively, those connected with the Republic of Ireland before 1949). These UK nationals enjoy the status of European citizen in common with nationals of other member states of the European Union.

British nationals who are not European citizens are issued what is known as "lookalike passports". These are similar to normal British passports, except that they do not have the words "European Union" on the cover, and do not contain any EU-specific information inside, e.g., the words "Passport - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and the information on the photograph page are given only in English and French, rather than in all the official languages of the European Union.

[edit] Endorsements

Certain British passports are issued with printed endorsements in the Official Observations page. These form part of the passport when it is issued, and should be distinguished from immigration stamps subsequently entered in the visa pages:

Holder is not entitled to benefit from European Community provisions relating to employment or establishment

British citizens from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man without a qualifying connection to the United Kingdom by descent or residency have this endorsement in their passports, as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are only part of the European Community for the purposes of the free movement of goods.

Holder of this passport has Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card No: A123456(7) which states that holder has right of abode in Hong Kong *

British National (Overseas) passports will have this endorsement in their passport, as a valid Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (which guarantees right of abode in Hong Kong) is required to possess a BN(O) passport.

Holder is entitled to right of abode in the United Kingdom

British subjects with the right of abode (usually from the Republic of Ireland) will have this endorsement in their passports. Commonwealth citizens, with the right of abode, who do not hold a United Kingdom passport are eligible to have a certificate of entitlement to the right of abode placed in the visa pages of whichever country's passport they do hold, upon request.

Holder is entitled to readmission in the United Kingdom

British Overseas citizens, British subjects and British protected persons without the right of abode who have been granted indefinite leave to enter or remain retain this entitlement for life, and their passports are accordingly issued with this endorsement.

Holder is subject to control under the Immigration Act 1971

British nationals without the right of abode will have this endorsements in their passports unless they have been granted indefinite leave to enter or remain.

[edit] History

Safe Conduct documents, usually notes signed by the monarch, were issued to foreigners as well as English subjects in medieval times. They were first mentioned in an Act of Parliament in 1414. Between 1540 and 1685, the Privy Council issued passports although they were still signed by the monarch until the reign of Charles II when the Secretary of State could sign them instead. The Secretary of State signed all passports in place of the monarch from 1794 onwards, at which time formal records started to be kept[1].

Passports were written in Latin or English until 1772 when French was used instead. From 1858, English was used, with some sections translated into French until 1921.

In 1858, passports became a standard document issued solely to British nationals. Until 1915, they were a simple single-sheet paper document and included a photograph of the holder.

The British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 was passed on the outbreak of the First World War. At this time a new format was introduced, a single sheet folded into eight and containing a cardboard cover. It included a description of the holder as well as a photograph, and had to be renewed after two years.

[edit] The Old Blue passport

An Old Blue passport. The top window contains the name, and the bottom the passport number in the format 123456 X. The top right hand corner has been clipped to show that it is no longer valid. (Crown copyright)

This image has an uncertain copyright status and is pending deletion. You can comment on the removal.

A 32-page passport, now known as the Old Blue, came into use in 1920 with the formation of the Passport Service following international agreement on a standard format for passports, and remained in use until replaced by the European Union style machine readable passports in late 1988.

Two versions were available, one for individuals, but which could also include the person's spouse, and another for families which included their children as well.

Various changes to the design were made over the years[2]:

In 1954, the name of the Secretary of State was removed[3].
In 1968, the validity was extended from two to ten years.
At the end of 1972, several modifications were made. A special blue watermarked paper was introduced to make alteration and forgery harder. The number of pages was reduced from 32 to 30, and descriptions of the holder's eye colour and (for a married woman) maiden name were removed.
In May 1973, an optional 94-page passport was made available which provided many more pages for immigration stamps and visas for frequent travellers.
In 1975, lamination over the bearer's photograph was introduced to make alteration harder. Overprinting of the laminate was added in 1981 to make removal easier to spot.
The holder's occupation and country of residence were removed in 1982.
In July 1988, changes were made to ease the introduction of the machine readable passports later in the year. Joint and Family passports were no longer issued and the descriptions of distinguishing features and height were removed.

[edit] The British Visitor's Passport

A new type, the British Visitor's Passport, was introduced in 1961, and was a single page cardboard document valid for a year and obtainable from a Post Office. It was recognised by most West European countries, but was dropped in 1995 since it did not identify the holder's nationality nor did it meet new security standards.

[edit] The Burgundy passport

On 15 August 1988, the Glasgow passport office became the first to issue burgundy-coloured machine-readable passports[4]. They followed a common format agreed amongst member states of the European Community, and had the words 'European Community' on the cover. This was changed to 'European Union' in 1997. The passport is burgundy coloured, machine-readable, and has 32 or 48 pages. The machine-readable portion is two lines of printed text in a format agreed amongst members of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Some types of passport omit the reference to the European Union, for example those for citizens of British overseas territories (other than those from Gibraltar), British subjects without the Right of abode, British protected persons and British National (Overseas).

The current version captures a digital image of the photograph, signature and reproduces these onto the personal details page of the passport. The whole page is protected from modification by a laminate, which incorporates a colour holographic image comprising a Tudor Rose, Dafodil, Shamrock and Thistle underneath a representation of the British Crown. The hologram is affixed directly over the holders photograph (tilting the passport page in direct light reveals the image clearly). The newest passports (introduced in 2006) are biometric and have an RFID chip and antenna on the other side of the laminated details page. The chip holds the same information as is printed on the other side of the page and a digital copy of the photograph with biometric information for use with facial recognition systems. In addition, both the Welsh and Scottish Gaelic languages have been included for the first time. These now appear alongside official translations of the passport title and notes - a facility provided in addition to the mandatory translations into the official EU languages. The data page however retains exclusive use of the English and French langauges for listing of the holders personal information.[5]

[edit] National identity registration

Under the Identity Cards Act 2006, probably from 2008, anyone applying for a passport will be required to have their details entered into a centralised computer database, the National Identity Register. Once registered, they will be obliged to update any change to their address and other personal details.

It is expected that the cost of a passport and ID card package will rise to at least £93 to help fund the new scheme.

In May 2006 a "Renew for Freedom" campaign [6] was launched by the NO2ID opposition group, urging passport holders to renew their passports in the summer of 2006 in order to delay being entered on the National Identity Register. This followed the comment made by Charles Clarke in the House of Commons that "anyone who feels strongly enough about the linkage [between passports and the ID scheme] not to want to be issued with an ID card in the initial phase will be free to surrender their existing passport and apply for a new passport before the designation order takes effect" [7].

In response, the Home Office said that it was "hard to see what would be achieved, other than incurring unnecessary expense" by renewing passports early [8].

main article: British national identity card

[edit] Fees

The cost of obtaining a standard passport over the years has been as follows. It is expected that fees will rise to at least £93 to help fund the National Identity Register and ID cards, as discussed above.

£66 - October 5, 2006 - for the introduction of the latest generation passport, anti-fraud measures and interviews for first-time applicants [9]
£51 - December 1, 2005 - to reflect the cost of implementing key anti-fraud measures [10]
£42 - October 2, 2003 - to pay for new anti-fraud measures [11]
£33 - November 21, 2002 [12]
£30 - January 14, 2002 [13]
£28 - December 16, 1999 - to fund a major overhaul of the Passport Agency following the summer crisis [14]
£21 - March 26, 1998 [15]
£18 - November 1992

[edit] Vulnerabilties

According to The Guardian, the information contained on a biometric passport can be viewed using readily available hardware and software. Information is stored in encrypted form on an RFID tag, with the password as a combination of information written on the passport, so that anyone with access to the passport will be able to read the chip. The passport is also vulnerable to brute-force attacks. And because it possible to read the RFID tags remotely at a distance of several centimetres, it is not necessary to be in possession of the passport to extract the data. ^[1]

As a result, the cloning of the passport is a possibility. Because the biometric passport is supposedly highly secure and therefore trusted, it is thought that the holder of a cloned passport might be more likely to escape detection than the holder of a traditional passport.