Replace your broken biometric passport? Just say no…


John Lettice writes in The Register:

The NAO report tells us something The Register’s been pointing out for some time: “An ePassport remains a valid travel document even if the electronic chip fails.” This is an ICAO requirement, and it means a passport with a bust chip is still a passport that you can use to cross borders, and that they have no right to stop you because your passport is ‘broken’ – it isn’t. So what do they do? According to the NAO: “If failure is detected at border control, the holder will be issued with a letter advising them to contact the issuing authority. The Identity and Passport Service will examine any faulty ePassports returned to it and, where it concludes the chip unit contains a manufacturing fault, the ePassport will be replaced free of charge.”

Which is where we came in. Suckers who’ve acted on the letter by allowing IPS to take their passport hostage will be forced to cough up for a new one, except in the unlikely event that Philips screwed up. So if you’re handed that letter, don’t act on it. And if thousands, or tens of thousands of people are handed that letter, IPS will have a problem that it’s not going to be able to park with Philips.