The British passport is a travel document issued by the United Kingdom or other British dependencies and territories to individuals holding any form of British nationality. It grants the bearer international passage in accordance with visa requirements and serves as proof of British citizenship. It also facilitates access to consular assistance from British embassies around the world. Passports are issued using royal prerogative, which is exercised by His Majesty's Government; this means that the grant of a passport is a privilege, not a right, and may be withdrawn in some circumstances. British citizen passports have been issued in the UK by His Majesty's Passport Office, an agency of the Home Office, since 2014. All passports issued in the UK since 2006 have been biometric.
The legacy of the United Kingdom as an imperial power has resulted in several types of British nationality, and different types of British passport exist as a result. Furthermore, each of the Crown dependencies and certain Overseas territories issue their own variants of British passports to those with links to their jurisdictions, which have small differences from the UK-variant passport. All British passports enable the bearer to request consular assistance from British embassies and from certain Commonwealth high commissions in some cases. British citizens can use their passport as evidence of right of abode in the United Kingdom.
Between 1920 and 1992, the standard design of British passports was a navy blue hardcover booklet featuring the royal coat of arms emblazoned in gold. From 1988, the UK adopted machine readable passports in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization standard 9303. At this time, the passport colour was also changed to burgundy red, to bring it into line with the European Community passports of the other member states. The previous blue hardback passport continued to be issued in tandem with the new design until stocks were exhausted in 1992.
Pre-Brexit, the contract for printing British passports had been held by British company De La Rue on a 10-year contract since 2010, and prior to that by 3M. In 2018, the contract for printing post-Brexit was awarded to Franco-Dutch company Gemalto, which in 2019 became Thales DIS, part of the multinational Thales Group. The passport booklets would be printed more cheaply in Poland, with a controversial loss of printer jobs at De La Rue, but the passports would be personalised in the UK across two sites. All passports are now issued with the blue design and they are made by Thales DIS in Poland.
British citizens have visa-free or visa on arrival access to 184 countries and territories; the international access available to British citizens ranks eighth in the world according to the 2025 Visa Restrictions Index. British citizens have freedom of movement in the Republic of Ireland, due to the Common Travel Area. Since the introduction of biometric passports in 2006, a new design has been introduced every five years. As of 2025 there were 53.4 million British passports in circulation.
History Timeline Various changes to the design were made over the years: 1914: the first 'modern' passports featuring a photograph of the holder were issued. 1915: passports featuring a cardboard cover, validity period, and description of the holder were first issued. 1927: the country name changed from "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" (alternatively the name of the colony, territory, or protectorate appeared here). 1954: the name of the Secretary of State was removed. 1968: the validity was extended from five years renewable up to ten, to ten years non-renewable. 1972, end: several modifications were made. A special blue watermarked paper was introduced to make alteration and forgery more difficult. The number of pages was reduced from 32 to 30, and the holder's eye colour and the maiden name of a married woman were removed. 1973, May: an optional 94-page passport was made available which provided many more pages for immigration stamps and visas for frequent travellers. 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. 1979: Sterling area exchange controls were abolished, and the foreign exchange page was removed. 1982: the holder's occupation and country of residence were removed. 1988, July: changes were made to ease the introduction of machine-readable passports later in the year. Joint passports were no longer issued and the descriptions of distinguishing features and height were removed. At the same time the number of pages was increased to 32 pages in a standard passport, whilst the jumbo passport was reduced to 48 pages. 1988, August: the old style started to be replaced by the burgundy passport, which included the first-ever printed mention of the European Community on the cover and granted automatic free movement of labour to British citizens in the other 9 EEC countries (at the time), and reciprocally provided access for those nation's workers into the British economy. Some offices issued the remaining stock of old-style passports until as late as 1993. 1998: Digital facial image rather than a laminated photograph, and intaglio or raised printing on the inside of the covers. Children under 16 are no longer included on new adult passports. (see paragraph 6.5) 2006: Biometric passports (also called ePassports) comply with the US Visa Waiver Program. 2010: The Identity & Passport Service announced that the British passport was to be redesigned. Pages of the passport will contain well-known British scenes including the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula, Ben Nevis and the Giant's Causeway. There will also be new security features, namely moving the chip which stores the holder's details to the inside of the passport cover where it will no longer be visible (this gives additional physical protection as well as making it much harder to replace the chip without damage to the passport cover being spotted), a secondary image of the holder printed onto the observations page, new designs now stretching across two pages and a new transparent covering which includes several holograms to protect the holder's personal details. 2015: HM Passport Office unveiled the design and theme of the new passport as 'Creative United Kingdom' at Shakespeare's Globe, London on November. The design features British cultural icons such as William Shakespeare, John Harrison, John Constable, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Antony Gormley, Elisabeth Scott and Anish Kapoor; iconic British innovations such as the Penny Black and the London Underground; and British landmark structures like the Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Edinburgh Castle, the Pierhead Building in Cardiff, Titanic Belfast and the Royal Observatory Greenwich. As part of the Press release the HM Passport Office said the new passport is the most secure in the world. The passport was released in December 2015. De La Rue has a 10-year contract with HM Passport Office designing and producing the British Passports starting in 2010 as well as the new 'Creative UK' passport in 2015. 2019: References to the European Union removed. 2020: Burgundy passports to be phased out over the first few months. New manufacturer Gemalto to start issuing navy blue passports, which are printed at the plant in Tczew (Poland). These new passports are said to be the most technologically advanced in the world and add features such as a polycarbonate data page and the holder's data duplicated on an electronic microprocessor. The Home Office is also aiming for the new passports to be carbon net-neutral, through projects such as tree planting to offset carbon emissions during the manufacturing process.
Early passports (1414–1921) British passports issued in 1857 (left) and 1862 (right). King Henry V of England is credited with having invented what some consider the first passport in the modern sense, as a means of helping his subjects prove who they were in foreign lands. The earliest reference to these documents is found in the Safe Conducts Act 1414. In 1540, granting travel documents in England became a role of the Privy Council of England, and it was around this time that the term "passport" was introduced. In Scotland, passports were issued by the Scottish Crown and could also be issued on the Crown's behalf by burghs, Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow, senior churchmen and noblemen. Passports were still signed by the monarch until 1685, 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; all of these records still exist. Passports were written in Latin or English until 1772, then in French until 1858. Since that time, they have been written in English, with some sections translated into French. In 1855, passports became a standardised document issued solely to British nationals. Passports in England and Wales were issued by the Home Secretary, and in Scotland by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh or Glasgow. They were a simple single-sheet hand-drafted paper document.
Some duplicate passports and passport records are available at the British Library; for example IOR: L/P&J/11 contain a few surviving passports of travelling ayahs from the 1930s. A passport issued on 18 June 1641 and signed by King Charles I still exists.
Starting in the late 19th century, an increasing number of Britons began travelling abroad due to the advent of railways and travel services such as the Thomas Cook Continental Timetable. The speed of trains, as well as the number of passengers that crossed multiple borders, made enforcement of passport laws difficult, and many travellers did not carry a passport in this era. However, the outbreak of World War I led to the introduction of modern border controls, including in the UK with passage of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914. Thus, in 1915 the British government developed a new format of passport that could be mass-produced and used to quickly identify the bearer. The new passport consisted of a printed sheet folded into ten and affixed to a clothed cardboard cover. It included a description of the holder as well as a photograph, and had to be renewed after two years.
Passport booklets (1921–1993)
In October 1920, the League of Nations held the Paris Conference on Passports & Customs Formalities and Through Tickets. British diplomats joined with 42 countries to draft passport guidelines and a general booklet design resulted from the conference. The League model specified a 32-page booklet of . The first four pages were reserved for detailing the bearer's physical characteristics, occupation and residence.
The British government formed the Passport Office in the same year and in 1921 began issuing 32-page passports with a navy blue hardcover with an embossed coat of arms. "BRITISH PASSPORT" was the common identifier printed at the top of all booklets, while the name of the issuing government was printed below the coat of arms (e.g. United Kingdom, New Zealand, Hong Kong). Cut-outs in the cover allowed the bearer's name and the passport number to be displayed. This format would remain the standard for most British passports until the introduction of machine-readable passports in 1988. It continued to be issued in the United Kingdom until the end of 1993.