05 April 2006 Blog Home : April 2006 : Permalink
"You do not have to wait until your passport is nearly expired to renew it, but we can add no more than nine months unexpired validity from the old passport to the new one. You can renew your passport whenever you wish, but you must pay the full fee and no refund can be given on the unexpired validity in the old passport."
Obviously the idea was to stop people renewing early by leaving it saying just that you could renew if "it will run out within the next nine months." but not explaining the rest. It seems to me (and the Reg) that this was actually a pretty stupid idea because all you would have to do would be to "accidentally" seriously damage your passport (or report that it was lost) and then apply for a new one. As the reg notes, it ought to be fairly easy to jam the system by having a few million people apply for a renewal a couple of months before ID card biometrics are required and it seems like mass arrests for intentional destruction would just move the block and jam up the court system, making the protest even more successful.