With summer right around the corner, you might be about to dust off your passport to jet off from the UK to sunnier climes.

But don’t get caught out by finicky passport rules that could leave your holiday in jeopardy.

Here we present the passport rules you need to know before you travel, from the new regulations for Brits around passport validity in the EU to ways to save money on renewing your passport..

DON’T GET CAUGHT OUT BY EU RULES

When travelling to the EU, a ten-year British passport is only valid for exactly ten years after the date of issue – rather than the date of expiry. 

Before September 2018, passport holders could have up to nine months added to their passport expiry date if they renewed their ten-year passport early. Post-Brexit, however, although the official validity of your passport may be beyond ten years, the EU does not recognise these extra months. On top of this, you must also have at least three months’ validity on your passport beyond the date you intend to leave the EU’s free-movement Schengen territory.

So, if you enter the EU from the UK on July 1, 2023, and return on July 5, 2023, you must have a passport issued less than ten years before July 1, and valid for at least three months after July 5.

Several British travellers were caught out by the new passport validity rules last summer and were turned away at the airport. For further details, search for ‘documents you need’ at home-affairs.ec.europa.eu or visit www.abta.com.

DO YOUR RESEARCH  

Always check the specific entry requirements for the country you are visiting on the gov.uk website before travelling – the rules around passport validity vary from country to country. 

For instance, while most countries such as Australia, Canada and the USA just need your passport to be valid for the length of your stay, other countries such as China, Thailand, Egypt and Turkey need at least six months. As previously mentioned, you will need at least three months' validity on your passport from the intended day of departure from the EU.

COUNT YOUR BLANK PAGES

If your passport is filling up with stamps and there’s hardly any space left, you need to renew it – even if you’ve got several years left on it. This is because some countries can be fussy about passports with pages filled. For instance, Italy and South Africa require at least two full blank pages.

SAVE YOUR CASH

There’s one simple way to save money when renewing your passport – apply for it online, rather than by post. 

The fee for a standard online application made from within the UK is £82.50 for adults and £53.50 for children. Postal applications, meanwhile are £93 for adults and £64 for children. In general, how you choose to renew your passport could end up costing a family of four £40 more than it should.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?

When applying for a renewed passport, you should allow up to ten weeks from when the passport office receives your old passport, any supporting documents or confirmation of your identity details, according to gov.uk. You can apply online or at a post office. 

SHORT ON TIME?

There are two ways to apply for an urgent passport. The first is the ‘online premium’ service, in which you get a new passport at your appointment at your nearest passport office – the earliest you can get an appointment is two days from when you apply. 

The second is the one-week ‘fast track’ service, in which you attend an appointment at the passport office, and a new passport is delivered to your home within the subsequent seven days, excluding bank holidays. You must act quickly, however, as passport office appointment slots – each lasting around 30 minutes – are snapped up quickly. 

The online premium service will set you back £193.50 for an adult passport, while the one-week fast track service costs £155 for an adult passport.

If you need a passport to travel urgently for healthcare or because a loved one is seriously ill or has died, it’s recommended that you call the 'Passport Adviceline' instead.

STRIKE ACTION DISRUPTION 

Members of the country's biggest civil service union, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), launched targeted strike action at the HM Passport Office from April 3 to May 5 of this year.

As a result of the strikes, the PCS claimed that the number of appointments available for people needing a passport was ‘slashed’ and far fewer documents were issued.

Earlier this month it was revealed there could be more delays in processing passports as members of the PCS voted to renew their mandate to keep taking industrial action for the next six months in a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

The PCS said the vote was 88 per cent in favour, paving the way for strikes to continue for most of the rest of the year. 

SCAMS TO WATCH OUT FOR

In April, holidaymakers were warned to look out for fraudsters exploiting passport delays caused by industrial action by UK Passport Office workers by offering bogus 'fast-track' services.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) warned that scammers were using increasingly sophisticated and convincing methods to trick travellers into paying for non-existent services.

The CTSI said it had seen a number of texts and emails offering speedy passport renewals, warning that victims could lose personal data to fraudsters as well as money.

CTSI chief executive John Herriman said: 'As always, scammers are quick to leap on any opportunity to take advantage of uncertainty and upheaval. The exploitation of delays brought about by Passport Office strikes is just the latest example of scammers preying on people's vulnerability.’

Car insurance premiums have risen by 16 per cent in a year, as insurers say they are forced to pass on the soaring cost of repairs.

The average premium paid for comprehensive motor insurance was £478 in the first three months of this year, according to new data from the Association of British Insurers.

That is up 16 per cent on the same period in 2022, and is the highest level since the £483 premiums seen in the final three months of 2019.

The reason for rising premiums is a storm of increased costs for insurers - mostly repairs, according to insurance firm Direct Line and the ABI.

Jonathan Fong, ABI senior policy adviser on motor insurance, said: 'With households battling the rising cost of living, the last thing anyone wants is a higher motor insurance bill.

'Naturally, every motorist wants the best insurance deal, and insurers are doing all they can to keep motor insurance as competitively priced as possible. Yet, like many other sectors, insurers continue to face higher costs. 

'The price of certain raw materials and energy costs are rising at rates well above general inflation, and these costs are becoming increasingly challenging to absorb.'

Increasing car repair costs

Energy bills - up 300%

An ABI spokesperson said gas and electricity bills for car repairers have risen by 300 per cent, taking average energy costs per repair to £70.

This is worsened by the fact that vehicle repairers need to use large amounts of power, an ABI spokesman said,

This is passed on to consumers as increased premiums.

Paint and parts - up 16%

Insurance premiums are also being pushed up by the rising cost of paint and a shortage of car parts.

The lack of parts started with the global semiconductor shortage during the worst of the pandemic, which manufacturers are still grappling with.

More than a third of the price of a new car is microchips and semiconductors, according to insurance firm Saga.

The Russian war on Ukraine has also worsened the shortage of parts.

For example, the average car has more than three miles of wiring inside it, which is kept organised with wire harnesses.

Ukraine was a major manufacturer of wire harnesses, and the conflict has led to a lack of components for carmakers such as BMW, Porsche and Volkswagen.

Overall, shortages of parts and labour have increased the average time to repair a car with minor damage from the norm of 13 days to 17 now. 

For cars that are damaged so badly as to be undriveable, that time has risen further - from 26 to 39 days.

Meanwhile paint costs are also rising - in part, insurers say, because the finish expected on modern cars is more professional than in the past, and because cars are larger - so need more paint.

But the increasing cost of paint is also due to oil prices, which, while falling, are still historically high.

Courtesy car costs - up 30%

With cars spending longer being repaired, there is greater demand for courtesy cars, which means prices have risen by almost a third.

That price is paid by drivers, as higher premiums. 

In response, rather than paying to repair a crashed car some insurers now ask to buy it off its owner then sell it for scrap to swerve the cost of getting it fixed.

Labour costs - up 7.5%

Wages for car repair workers are also rising, which is passed on to insurers - and then to drivers.

These salaries are going up due to a shortage of mechanics, which began after Brexit, as well as growing employee demands for greater wages to help with the cost of living crisis.

Second-hand car costs - up 30%

The value of used cars has been rising as the parts shortage led to fewer new ones for sale.

The average price of a used vehicle has increased by 30 per cent, or £4,119, in three years, according to Auto Trader.

That in turn means rising insurance costs, as the value of the vehicle being insured is higher.

The 20 most incendiary breakfast fails for Brits have been revealed – and burnt toast tops the ranking.

In a survey of ‘very British and relatable breakfast fails’, burnt toast received 48 per cent of the vote, ‘overcooked dippy eggs’ came second with 34 per cent and ‘cremated bacon’ third with 23 per cent.

Fourth was ‘soggy cereal’ (22 per cent), while 18 per cent said finding egg shell in scrambled eggs infuriated them the most.

The rest of the top ten in a the poll of 2,000 Britons by the New York Bakery Co comprises ‘rock-hard butter that breaks the toast’ (17 per cent), ‘milk added to a teabag before hot water’ and ‘undercooked, flabby bacon’ in joint seventh place (16 per cent), and ‘dry scrambled eggs’ and ‘instant coffee’ in joint eighth place (14 per cent).

Watery poached eggs (12 per cent), stodgy porridge (11 per cent) and being served a big slimy mushroom on the side of their fry-up (five per cent) also leave Britons disappointed.

Meanwhile, one in 20 say the most annoying breakfast fail is having beans on the same plate as their fry-up, and not in a separate ramekin.

Yet despite being regularly disappointed with their breakfast, 71 per cent would not dream of complaining about one that was below par, with one in three (27 per cent) insisting it is simply not the done thing.

However, a sixth of Brits (16 per cent) were happy to post their #breakfastfails to social media, with hilarious results, as we’ve shown here.

Even though there were plenty of complaints, two thirds (66 per cent) agree that when done well, breakfast is the best meal of the day.

Making time for it is the issue, with almost half (44 per cent) saying they are usually too rushed for breakfast during the week, and 69 per cent saying it is usually a hurried, chaotic affair.

According to the stats, Brits would love their weekday breakfasts to be more like their weekend ones, with eight in ten (79 per cent) preferring weekend brunches because they have more time.

Alastair Unite, from the New York Bakery Co, said: ‘We know that weekday family breakfasts can be pretty chaotic. It’s something we can all relate to. Burned toast, slimy eggs and cold beans - we’ve all been there - and shared a laugh or two along the way.

‘But we also know that people want to make more of breakfast. The research shows that over half of Brits wish they could spend more mealtimes together, with a further 53 per cent agreeing that some of their best memories are created over breakfast.