No passport control at Heathrow outbound?

[hellokittymania]

Last time I left the UK from Heathrow, I noticed there was no passport control? On my way back into the UK though, there was? I am very confused. Is it the same with Gatwick as well ? I am a British national so don't need any stamps, but if you are a foreigner who stamps your passport now? How long has it been like this? I have a disability and often have assistance to the gate, so maybe it has been the case for a long time and I never noticed?

There has been no passport control on departure from U.K. Airports for years, although there is at Eurostar, where there are juxtaposed controls.

There is passport control, it is a machine not a person.

Passport control hasn't been there this century at Heathrow or Gatwick. Security do some cursory checks and airlines at check too.

How do they stamp your passport though if you are a foreigner? As I said I have a severe visual impairment and sadly when I am assisted, I don't pay as much attention to my environment as I do when I am on my own. I went to the gate on my own If you weeks ago which is why I noticed.

They don't stamp passports on departure and haven't done so for years.

No one stamps your passport on the way out, haven't done since the mid 1990s.

Exit checks can be put in place if specifically needed (such as immediately after 7/7, for example). And there are long standing plans to reintroduce them through a new IT system called "e-Borders". But you can guess what has happened to a big, complicated government IT project, can't you....

More information in this Border Force fact sheet if you are interested!

Thank you, I work in Southeast Asia and I'm used to going through passport control, having to get visas and stamps. So it's hard to believe that the UK does not stamp passports....

The UK (like most countries) is bothered about who comes in rather than who leaves.

The UK stamps on the way in but not on the way out, if that's what you're asking. They've checked my passport on the way out once in the 10 years I've lived here but not stamped then either.

It's one of the reasons we don't really know what the population in the UK is, particularly the illegal population.

Hellokittymania - I also live in Asia and they are stamp mad here! My five year old jumbo passport is nearly full.
I was surprised when we went to Canada and nobody stamped the passport on the way out as pp said nobody is bothered about you leaving.

My passport doesn't have any stamps in it. I don't think I have ever had any passport stamped in the UK. They don't stamp it in Europe either. Although I don't know whether this will change after Brexit.

Only people from countries outside the EU get stamps