Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority on the potential merits of enabling travel within the Common Travel Area using biometric identification documents.
The Common Travel Area (CTA) is an immigration arrangement between the UK and Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey which allows British and Irish citizens to travel freely between the UK and Ireland and reside in either jurisdiction.
As part of the CTA arrangements, the UK does not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from within the CTA, with no immigration checks whatsoever on the Northern Ireland-Ireland land border.
However, individuals are still expected to comply with the UK’s immigration framework and where required most people who are not British or Irish citizens will need to show a valid passport on arrival if required by a Border Force Officer. The document must be valid for the whole time individuals are in the UK.
There are no plans to change the document requirements on CTA routes.