Collective Passport For Young People (UK)
Collective Passport Young People
Did you know those collective passports are still issued at least in the UK?
This document is a collective passport (from 1952) for children on an organized trip. The group leader must also carry his/her full British passport. Each child listed on page 2 of the collective passport must carry an identity card bearing his/her photograph. A collective (or group) passport is a way for an organized group of young people to make a trip to certain European countries. A collective passport costs £39 and applications take about 6 weeks. Young people should travel on their own passports if possible. Collective Passport Young People
The passport isn’t for families but for groups such as:
- schools and sixth-form colleges
- guides
- scouts
- other recognized youth organizations
You can have between 5 and 50 children on a group passport. If there are more than 50 in the group, you can split the group and apply for 2 or more passports. Everyone on the passport must be a British national and under 18 by the end of the trip. A group leader must be named on the passport. The passport is invalid if the group leader can’t travel, but if a deputy leader is named on the application, they can take over. The group leader and deputy leader must: Collective Passport Young People
- be aged 21 or over
- be a British citizen and have a British passport
- be a UK resident
I was surprised to read on the HMPO website that this document is still issued. I asked them if this is still the case after BREXIT and got a very swift reply with the following content.
“Collective Passports are issued in the UK under the Council of Europe Treaty 037/1961, which is not a European Union agreement and will remain in force once the UK leaves the European Union. Collective Passports are therefore unaffected by the UK leaving the EU.” Collective Passport Young People
Collective passports are “exotic” travel documents that are rare nowadays. One of my precious collectibles is a Yugoslavian passport from 1933 in booklet form, for a group of 69 people – and with 69 tiny passport photos!
Tom
Collective passports used to be quite common until the mid-1990s when, as a consequence of a few instances of serious injuries to and fatalities of young people included therein, education authorities and youth groups started to run scared of the legal and financial implications of such unfortunate events and scaled back substantially on overseas trips.
Also, I am still trying to get information for you about seamen’s cards but it is slow progress due to the limited staff on duty.
Thanks, Robert. I can’t imagine that they nowadays much in use anymore, even as legally possible. I will as HMPO for some statistics…