His Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

government agency. As a division of the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

(HO), it provides

passports A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

for

British nationals The primary law governing nationality in the United Kingdom is the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on 1 January 1983. Regulations apply to the British Islands, which include the UK itself (England, Wales, Scotland, and Nor ...

worldwide. It was formed on 1 April 2006 as the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), but was renamed HM Passport Office on 13 May 2013. The

General Register Office for England and Wales The General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) is the section of the United Kingdom HM Passport Office responsible for the civil registration of births (including stillbirths), adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in Engl ...

, which produces life event certificates for births, deaths, marriages, and civil partnerships, became a subsidiary of HMPO on 1 April 2008. HMPO's headquarters is co-located with the Home Office at

2 Marsham Street 2 Marsham Street is an office building on Marsham Street in the City of Westminster, London, and headquarters of the Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (and its predecessor bodies), departments of the Brit ...

, and it has seven regional offices around the UK: in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Newport, and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

, as well as an extensive nationwide interview office network (as first-time adult passport applicants may be required to attend an interview to verify their identity as a fraud prevention measure). The department was known as ''Her'' Majesty's Passport Office, until Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

's death on 8 September 2022 and the subsequent inheritance of the throne by

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

; it has since been renamed to reflect the change of monarch.

History

Until April 1984, the Passport Office had been part of the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

. Following the Rayner reviews, the Passport Office was transferred to the

. In 1991, the service became an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or No ...

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 The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created National Identity Cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, which were vo ...

, which merged the UK Passport Service with the Home Office's Identity Cards programme to form a new

. In 2007, the ninety British diplomatic missions that issued passports were consolidated into seven regional passport processing centres (RPPCs) based in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

, and

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, with an additional centre in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. By March 2014 the issue of overseas passports was transferred from FCDO to HMPO and the seven international regional offices had been closed. The

Identity Documents Act 2010 The Identity Documents Act 2010 (c. 40) is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which reversed the introduction of identity cards, and required the destruction of the information held on the National Identity Register. As a bill, it was pr ...

repealed the Identity Cards Act 2006 and required the cancellation of all identity cards and the destruction of all data held. On 1 April 2011, responsibility for British passports issued overseas passed from the

to IPS. The printing of passports issued overseas had been done in the UK since August 2011, and the administrative work performed at these RPPCs was repatriated to the UK during the 2013–14

financial year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

. From April 2014, all British nationals based overseas had to apply for their passports directly to the UK. The Identity and Passport Service was renamed HM Passport Office on 13 May 2013, in an effort to distance the agency from association with the scrapped

National Identity Register The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created National Identity Cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, which were vo ...

and ID cards. The government's press release stated that "The inclusion of 'Her Majesty's' in the title recognises that passports are the property of

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

, bear the Royal Coat of Arms, and are issued under the

Royal Prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, Privilege (law), privilege, and immunity recognised in common law (and sometimes in Civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy) as belonging to the monarch, so ...

." This means that the grant of a passport is a privilege, not a right, and may be withdrawn in some circumstances. HMPO's

status was removed on 1 October 2014, and it became a division within the Home Office. Its board reports directly to the Home Office's executive management board.

Teleperformance Teleperformance SE is a French multinational business process outsourcing company founded in 1978 with headquarters in France. It provides services for debt collection, telemarketing, customer relationship management, content moderation, and c ...

is contracted to provide customer service for the office. It is a £22.8m contract over five years.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Home Office (United Kingdom) Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government British passports 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom Government agencies established in 2006 Passport offices

History

See also

References

External links