Tuesday 8th February 2005
The UK Passport Service is including Welsh and Scottish Gaelic in passports for the first time when the new biometric passports are introduced from autumn this year. This means that the languages will appear in the newly designed passport alongside other EU member state languages. They will not however appear on the personal details page.
Although The Welsh Language Act 1993 does not require passports to contain this information and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill is still going through the Scottish Parliament, UKPS have decided that the two languages should be included with other design changes. These changes have been made without any increase in the cost of the passport and they have been welcomed by both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.
The new passports will include an embedded chip containing facial biometric information that can be scanned electronically. This will meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards which are aimed at reducing misuse by organised crime and the threat of international terrorism.
For further information on:
The History of the British Passport, click on ´History´
The Welsh Language Scheme, click on ´Publications´
Biometric passports, click on ´The UKPS biometrics enrolment trial´
