TNAG-1585-FCO40-2159-Hong-Kong-prisons-and-prisoners-1986 — Page 164

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VOLUME 25

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1.1

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CHAPTER 1

1.1 - 1.3

PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE ISSUE AND REFUSAL OF UNITED KINGDOM PASSPORTS

LAW RELATING TO PASSPORTS

There is no statute law and very little case law in the United Kingdom on the grant and refusal of passports. Certain principles, founded on such law as exists and on practice which has evolved over the years, can however be enunciated as shown in the following paragraphs.

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1.2.1

1.2.2

1.2.3

PRINCIPLE NO 1

United Kingdom passports are issued at the discretion of the Secretary of State for the Home Department in respect of passports issued in the United Kingdom and of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in respect of United Kingdom passports issued at British Missions overseas (see also para 1.2.3), exercising the Royal Prerogative. But in order to maintain that principle of discretion and prevent it being prejudiced by the criticism of arbitrary restriction of travel, which is created de facto when a passport is refused, refusal of passport facilities to British nationals (as defined in para 3.1 of this Volume and in DSP Volume 43 para 2.4) is confined in practice to certain clearly-defined classes of individual:

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minors whose journey is known to be contrary to a Court Order, to the wishes of a parent or other person or authority awarded custody or care and control, or to the provisions of section 25(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 as amended by section 42 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1963, or section 52 of the Adoption Act 1958;

persons for whose arrest a warrant has been issued in the United Kingdom, or persons who are wanted by the United Kingdom police on suspicion of a serious crime;

in very rare instances, persons who past or proposed activities are SO demonstrably undesirable that the grant or continued enjoyment of passport facilities would be contrary to the public interest;

British nationals repatriated from abroad at public expense, until they have repaid their debt.

These classes define the limits within which passports are refused, although in practice not everyone within them is denied passport facilities. For this reason, Posts may not withold passport facilities from British nationals in these classes except in accordance with standing instructions, or unless expressly authorised to do so in individual cases.

The Royal Prerogative is also exercised in their respective territories by the Lieutenant Governors of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and by Governors and Administrators of UK Dependent Territories, who similarly limit their refusal of passport facilities to the same classes as the Secretary of State.

1.3

PRINCIPLE NO 2

The Secretary of State may at his discretion withdraw United Kingdom passport facilities which he has granted but, in order to avoid the criticism which could be levelled if passport facilities for which those concerned had paid a fee were withdrawn arbitrarily, the withdrawal of passports is

January 1985

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