Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to update the technology required to read (a) diacritical characters and (b) accents marks in the biographical information of UK passport holders.

British passports meet the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). While these standards permit the use of either diacritic marks or their transliteration, the number of countries that have adopted use of diacritics in their passport is very low.

There are currently no plans to introduce the inclusion of diacritic marks in the British passport. However, this will remain a consideration ahead of any future system developments.