Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to exempt carriers from section 40 charges under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in relation to EEA nationals who travel to the UK on a valid passport or national identity card.

Carriers are responsible for ensuring that passengers are properly documented for travel to the UK or they may be liable to a carrier’s liability charge. These charges never apply to the carriage of correctly documented passengers, regardless of their nationality or the documentation they hold.

Since 1 October 2021, EU, other EEA and Swiss national citizens (with the exception of those who have protected rights under the EU Withdrawal Agreement and equivalent agreements) have been required to use a passport to enter the UK rather than a national identity card. We do not currently impose carriers’ liability charges on carriers bringing people to the UK incorrectly travelling on an identity card. This will change in the future as the rollout of our future border and immigration system will increasingly support interactive messaging with carriers to inform them what documentation is acceptable on an individual passenger basis.