New style passports all now printed in the UK
In the same week as the first anniversary of the new style UK passport it has been announced that all UK passports will now be printed and delivered from the UK.The printing of passports is now handled by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), which has taken over the responsibility from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) global passport processing centres.
Under the new arrangements the IPS now provides door-to-door secure delivery as well as taking responsibility for the setting of fees, policy and counter-fraud measures for UK passports issued overseas.
Over time the IPS will take on full integration of the service so that it handles the entire process, from application through to the handling, printing and delivery for UK passport customers overseas.
The first passports under the new service were printed on 16 June 2011, and with effect from 3 October 2011 all passports are now produced within the UK. The new delivery service sent more than 45,000 passports between 16 June and 3 October.
New style passport
The first anniversary of the new-look British passports was on 7 October. The new passports now feature four images of famous British landscapes; the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula, Ben Nevis and the Giant’s Causeway.
The new passports also include numerous security enhancements, including:
- moving the biometric chip to the inside of the passport cover giving additional physical protection as well as making it much harder to replace the chip without damaging the passport cover
- a second photo of the holder printed onto the observations page
- watermark designs that stretch across two pages
- a new foil which includes several holographic techniques to protect personal details
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