Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he undertook an impact assessment of his decision not to carry over excess validity from previous passports; and if he will make a statement.

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, passport holders would be considered third country nationals and would need to comply with different rules for travel in the Schengen Travel Area. These rules stipulate that passports over ten years old cannot be used for travel within the Area.

Some British passports are valid for more than ten years due to the carryover of validity from a previous passport. The UK was the last country in the world to carryover validity. International guidelines recommend that an adult passport should be valid for a maximum of ten years, and a child passport for a maximum of five years. In light of this, the impact of continuing to carryover validity was considered for all passport holders and was subsequently stopped on 10 September.