http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/04/early_passport_renewal_blocked/
John Lettice
"Updated The new UK Identity and Passport Service, spawned out of the Passport Service after the ID Cards Act became law on Saturday, celebrated its birth by trying to stop people renewing their passports whenever they want to, whether or not the passport is about to expire. The change in terms and conditions were slipped into the website without announcement, and were quite clearly ID card related.
And then, spookily close to the publication of The Register's first version of this story drawing attention to the change, they changed it back again. Fortunately, we have witnesses and while, no, we can't fathom precisely what they're up to, it's probably reasonable to guess that they know they have a potential problem, and they're going to have to figure out how to deal with it before ID cards go live.
Earlier today the Passport Service's (N.B, the website logo refresh is apparently still pending) renewal guidance said that you can renew your passport if 'it will run out within the next nine months'. But the following section, present until a couple of days ago, and back again today, had disappeared:
'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.'"
