Is it curtains for photobooths? New Home Office rules lets travellers use pictures taken on their smartphones for online passport applications

•  A change in official rules last year allows tourists to renew their passport online
• It means travellers can now use photos taken on their camera or smartphone
• Critics say it may create a security risk and could put photobooths out of use

They have been part of the British urban landscape for decades but the ubiquitous photobooth may soon be consigned to history – thanks to the march of the smartphone.

Under new Home Office rules, travellers can now use photographs taken on their mobile devices when applying for a passport online, removing at a stroke one of the prime reasons behind a visit to one of the curtained booths.

The Imaging Alliance, representing the photography industry, fears the move will spell the end for Britain’s estimated 6,000 photobooths after almost a century.

And the change of rules has been criticised for raising new security concerns. 

Until now, anyone ordering a UK passport had to post two prints taken by a machine or a professional at a shop and counter-signed by a responsible person. 

But under a change quietly introduced by the Home Office last year, adults who are renewing a travel document can do so online. 

They simply upload a picture of themselves taken on a mobile or digital camera, although officials say it cannot be a ‘selfie’.

Applicants type in their personal details online and sign the document when it arrives by post.

The Home Office said: ‘This is part of developing HM Passport Office’s online application service.’

Officials will check that photos match the pictures on their database and can be read by facial recognition machines at airports.

But Lord Harris of Haringey, who sits on the National Security Strategy Joint Committee, said the Home Office was ‘leaving it open for people to manipulate photographs and potentially endanger security’.

The first coin-operated photobooth, called the ‘Photomaton’, was set up in New York in 1925.