Are ‘extra months’ on pre-Brexit UK passports no longer valid?

Posted on by FactCheckNI

CLAIM: Additional months of validity on UK passports issued before the UK left the EU are no longer valid.

CONCLUSION: ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION. British passports used to visit the European Union or the Schengen Area following the end of the Brexit transition period must be less than 10 years old on the day the traveller leaves. However, this rule only applies for travel to the European Union or the Schengen Area; the rules for travel to the rest of the world are unchanged, and the new rules do not apply for travel to Ireland. Continue reading Are ‘extra months’ on pre-Brexit UK passports no longer valid?

Pets and the Northern Ireland Protocol

Posted on by FactCheckNI

Background: worries about Brexit and pets

Before the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, FactCheckNI published a fact check on the claim that pet owners travelling from Northern Ireland to Ireland already required “EU pet passports”. We found this claim to be accurate.

Now that the UK has withdrawn from the EU, the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (“the Northern Ireland Protocol”) is in operation. The Protocol affects the movement of goods and services between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This article sets out to explain the current understanding in regards to the transport of pets between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Continue reading Pets and the Northern Ireland Protocol

Are UK passports produced by non-UK companies?

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CLAIM: UK passports are produced by non-UK companies.

CONCLUSION: ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION. The new (blue) UK passport is produced by Thales Group (headquartered in France). However, passports will be personalised with the holder’s details in the UK. Continue reading Are UK passports produced by non-UK companies?

Do more than 700,000 born in Northern Ireland have an Irish passport?

Posted on by FactCheckNI

CLAIM: More than 700,000 people born in Northern Ireland have an Irish passport.

CONCLUSION: ACCURATE. 831,779 Irish passport applications (2010-19) represents 44.7% of the Northern Ireland-born population living in the UK at the time of the 2011 Censuses. Continue reading Do more than 700,000 born in Northern Ireland have an Irish passport?

The worst train and bus operators in the UK?

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CLAIM: Car insurance company Tempcover issued a press release and associated webpage which claimed to “reveal which public transport operators in the UK are doing the best job of getting Britain from A to B”.

CONCLUSION: INACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION. None of the public transport companies listed covered Northern Ireland, so it was a Great Britain-only analysis. Tempcover have now corrected this error on their website. The exclusion of Northern Ireland’s Translink service could have, at most, shifted other operators up or down the list by one position. Continue reading The worst train and bus operators in the UK?

Six minutes to clear security screening at George Best Belfast City Airport?

Posted on by FactCheckNI

CLAIM: Since October 2018, George Best Belfast City Airport has repeated its claim that passengers pass through the security search area in an average of six minutes.

CONCLUSION: UNSUBSTANTIATED. As a private company with no regulatory requirement to share detailed information, the airport chooses not to reveal detailed data that would allow the average calculation to be substantiated over time. As a result, we can neither prove nor disprove the accuracy of the six-minute claim. Continue reading Six minutes to clear security screening at George Best Belfast City Airport?