In 1968, the first 10-year passports were issued. Apart from that, passports changed very little until the 1970s. This was a decade when more and more people began to travel overseas. Because more passports were being issued, and were being used more often, security became increasingly important.
At the end of 1972, a new version of the blue passport was introduced. It used blue security paper with a special watermark to make it more difficult to alter or forge the passport.
Other changes in the 1972 version included:
From 1975, photographs in passports were laminated to make it more difficult to alter them. In 1981, this laminate was made even more secure by adding an overprint that would clearly show if the laminate had been removed.
One small change was made in 1984, when the passport holder’s occupation and country of residence were dropped from page 2.
In May 1973, a 94-page passport was introduced for frequent travellers who quickly filled the standard 30-page book with visas.
By 1988, plans were being made to computerise passport issuing in order to produce machine-readable passports. To make this change easier, it happened in stages.
The first stage was to stop producing family or joint passports. So, in July 1988, a new-format blue passport was issued that did not include a space for husband or wife. This version also dropped the passport holder’s height and distinguishing marks from page 2.
24-hour Passport Adviceline: 0300 222 0000 (see terms and conditions). Calls made to 0300 numbers from landlines and mobile phones are charged to customers at their network provider's national rate. Live operators are available to assist with your enquiry 24 hours a day.
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