Will the Border Force strike at Heathrow affect departures?

Simon Calder answers your questions on walkouts, what is required for children to travel with non-parental adults, and the tricky 10-year passport rule

Queues are far more likely to form for inbound travellers than for departures (Natasha Porter)

Q You reported that UK Border Force staff will strike at Heathrow airport for four days from Thursday 11 April. We are due to fly out that day. Will the strike have an impact on departures?

Sally L

A More than 600 members of the PCS union who work for UK Border Force at Heathrow voted by a margin of 9-1 in favour of industrial action in a dispute over a new rostering system. A strike has now been called for 11-14 April inclusive, which will be the peak four days at the end of the holidays for many schools. The PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “If the government is serious about border security, it should look at Border Force officers’ job security, look after its staff, scrap the changes and work with us to protect jobs and working conditions.”

Since UK Border Force staff routinely check only arrivals at airports, rather than departures, the initial impact of the walkout will be on people landing from abroad at Britain’s busiest airport. The Home Office has not yet answered my request for a response on the dispute and mitigation measures.

My assumption is that the strike will go ahead and that the government will use techniques as deployed during the last walk-out by UK Border Force. Military personnel and civil servant volunteers were trained to replace the staff who normally check the passports of arriving passengers. They were not able to provide the same level of service. But the hope among ministers and managers is that with many arrivals able to use eGates, excessive waits can be avoided.

However, no one knows exactly what will happen – especially when flights arrive containing a substantial proportion of passengers who need to be examined by officials. Were large numbers to build up in the immigration hall of one or more terminals, it is conceivable that to avoid overcrowding airlines would be ordered to delay disembarking new flights. That in turn could feed through to delays, or even cancellations, on departures on the affected planes. But the strikes in December 2022 did not have a significant effect and in your position I would assume an on-time departure.

Taking children’s friends abroad for holidays is commonplace – as is travelling with a child who has a different last name from the accompanying adult (Getty/iStock)

Q Any advice on what to put in a letter to give permission to take someone else’s child abroad with me?

Claire P

A Taking children’s friends abroad for holidays is commonplace – as is travelling with a child who has a different last name from the accompanying adult, often because of a blended family. The authorities are concerned about the risk of child abduction so adults who are travelling with children with different last names and/or characteristics should prepare carefully to ensure they can cross borders without a problem.

Before taking a child who is not your own abroad, the government says: “You must get the permission of everyone with parental responsibility for a child.” This is usually a straightforward matter of preparing a letter from the parents of the child authorising the journey. It should include the basic plan for the trip (typically flights and the location of accommodation); the relationship to the other members of the party; and the child’s parents’ full names and contact details, in case immigration officials decide to call and check.

Some people recommend also travelling with copies of the photo pages of the passports of the child’s parents so that officers can compare the signatures. If the parents are estranged and there is any kind of court order about custody, the issue can get very complex and you may need to consult a solicitor. In any event, having the consent letter witnessed by a notary public may help to smooth border crossings; many solicitors can perform the task of attesting to its authenticity.

With such a letter, entering the destination country and returning through the UK Border Force should be straightforward (leaving Britain, there are no passport checks). But depending on your destination, further bureaucracy may be required on the way in and/or out. Search for the latest Foreign Office travel advice for your destination, and look under “entry requirements”.

A cynical person might claim that the government did not wish to draw attention to the many travel impediments it had negotiated on our behalf (Simon Calder)

Q My sister fell foul of the “10-year rule” last year and lost her holiday. Not one single person we told the story to had ever heard anything about it – not even those who travel frequently. So do you remember exactly what the government’s “public information” campaign was?

Charlotte B

A Sorry to learn that your sister was one of tens of thousands of people who have inadvertently lost holidays as a result of the Brexit vote and the government’s negotiation of “third-country national” status for UK passport holders travelling to the European Union (but not Ireland). It is a distressing and expensive experience. As a reminder: your passport must be no more than 10 years old on the day you intend to arrive in the EU and wider Schengen area. On the day you plan to return, you should have at least three months remaining before the expiry date printed in your passport.

After the Brexit “transition period”, which ended on 31 December 2020, the UK government ran a general publicity campaign explaining that some things had changed as a result of leaving the EU. But as I recall, it was much more focused on, for example, rules for exporters than on holidaymakers – not least because the following month, ministers imposed an unprecedented 19-week ban on holidays abroad in an attempt to combat Covid. When finally we were free to travel internationally once again, there was no campaign aimed at the passport restrictions we had imposed on ourselves.

A cynical person might claim that the government did not wish to draw attention to the many travel impediments it had negotiated on our behalf: from exclusion from fast-track passport lanes, via the 90-day limit on stays in the EU to border check on whether we have “sufficient means to pay for the intended stay and return travel”.

In one sense, it was a good thing that ministers did not conduct a public information campaign at that time because, sadly, the Home Office and Foreign Office did not understand the rules and repeatedly insisted they were even stricter than they actually were. All I can suggest to your sister is that, if she booked through a travel agent belonging to Abta, she should have been given accurate information about the changes for visits to the EU.

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