Electronic Travel Authorisations: Trade
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme on the number of trade visitors from the EU entering the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
Electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) have been introduced to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream and stop those who pose a threat from travelling to the UK. In addition, by knowing more about people in advance of travel our ambition is to increase automation of passenger clearance at the border. This will improve the end-to-end experience for legitimate passengers and promote the UK as a top destination for tourism and business passengers. The experience of other countries to have implemented similar schemes (such as the USA) gives us confidence that volumes of business visitors will not be negatively impacted.
The application is quick and light-touch, and many applications are decided within minutes. Since the scheme’s introduction until the end of 2024, over 1.1 million ETAs have been granted.
The Home Office published an initial impact assessment on the introduction of ETAs, and a further Impact Assessment was published alongside the Fee Regulations in March that increased the chargeable ETA fee (alongside other fees) - The Immigration, Nationality and Passport (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
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