Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the required alignment of surnames on EU and UK official documents on women from European countries who retain their birth name on official documents from their home country.

The Home Office holds a one name for all official purposes policy, to protect the integrity and security of the British passport, helping His Majesty’s Passport Office confirm the identity of anyone applying for a British passport.

The aim of the policy is to deter and disrupt those who wish to change their name to commit crime or evade detection, and by the fact it is applied equally to all customers.

Exceptions can be supported where it would be unreasonable to ask a customer to change their name.

In such cases, HM Passport Office can apply an administrative fairness test and may issue a passport in the name the customer has applied in, even though it is different to the name on their foreign passport. This includes where a married woman cannot assume her spouse’s surname.

We continue to monitor the effectiveness and impacts of this policy.