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In 1991, the service became an executive agency as the United Kingdom Passport Agency (UKPA). The Identity and Passport Service was established on 1 April 2006, following the passing of the Identity Cards Act 2006, which merged the UK Passport Service with the Home Office's Identity Cards programme to form a new executive agency.
The Identity and Passport Service issued the first biometric British passport on 6 February 2006, known as Series A. This was the first British passport to feature artwork. Series A, version 1 was produced between 2006 and 2010, while an updated version 2 with technical changes and refreshed artwork was produced between 2010 and 2015. [42]
Iris Recognition Immigration System (IRIS) was an initiative, launched in 2004, to provide automated clearance through UK immigration for certain frequent travellers. It functioned in "one-to-all" identification mode, searching a large database of some million enrolled frequent travellers to see if anyone matched the presenting iris.
A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. [1] A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid and protection, and obtain consular assistance from their government.
The Henley Passport index ranks passports according to the number of destinations that can be reached using a particular country's ordinary passport without the need of a prior visa ("visa-free"). [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] The survey ranks 199 passports against 227 destination [ 12 ] countries , territories , and micro-states .
The British National (Overseas) passport, commonly referred to as the BN(O) passport, is a British passport for people with British National (Overseas) status. BN(O) status was created in 1987 after the enactment of Hong Kong Act 1985, [1] whose holders are permanent residents of Hong Kong who were British Overseas Territories citizens (formerly British Dependent Territories citizens) until 30 ...
The current British passport. Visa requirements for British citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of the United Kingdom. As of 2025, British citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 190 countries and territories, ranking the British passport 5th in the world according to ...
A number of holders of British passports, which until September 2018 could be issued with a validity period of up to 10 years and nine months if the previous passport was not expired, were unable to travel to the EU subsequent to Brexit due to this restriction.