Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department has sent to people who have passports with an expiry date over ten years after the issue date to inform them of changes to passport validity requirements.

A cross-government campaign has run since November 2018, and has been updated three times, the most recent iteration was on 8 September 2020, which was to inform citizens of changes as a result of the end of the transition period following the UK’s exit from the European Union.

This campaign promoted the new passport validity rules for travel to most countries in Europe, as well as promoting Her Majesty’s Passport Office’s online passport checker, where customers can enter their details to see if HM Passport Office recommend they renew their passport to meet these new rules. This checker can be found at the following website:

www.gov.uk/check-a-passport-travel-europe

HM Passport Office has been directing customers to the checker using SMS and email, subject to the customer’s details being held from the previous application. For over-16s, these messages are sent to customers whose passport was issued over nine and a half years previously.