Guidance

Mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses

Published 19 June 2026

Version 2.0

Guidance for His Majesty’s Passport Office operational staff on how to examine passport applications and respond to customers affected by the mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses in Northern Ireland.

About: Mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses in Northern Ireland

This guidance tells HM Passport Office operational staff what the mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses in Northern Ireland were. It explains how people removed, adopted and fostered through these institutions may be affected and how to deal with applications from impacted customers. It also includes how we will support these customers.

The Truth Recovery Programme is the project launched by the Northern Ireland Executive office to research the operation of mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and workhouses. The programme consults victims and survivors of the institutions to produce reports outlining their impacts, as well as recommendations for the Northern Ireland Executive Office.

Contacts

If you have any questions about the guidance and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the guidance has factual errors then email the Guidance team.

If you notice any formatting errors in this guidance (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the guidance then you can email the Guidance team.

Publication

Below is information on when this version of the guidance was published:

• version 2.0
• published for Home Office staff on 8 June 2026

Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been updated to change the terminology used to refer to mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and workhouses in Northern Ireland.

Mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and workhouses in Northern Ireland

This section tells HM Passport Office staff about mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and workhouses in Northern Ireland and how being adopted, fostered or removed through one of these institutions could affect a customer.

Mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses admitted women and girls, including those who were pregnant and not married. They were run by Catholic and Protestant church institution in Northern Ireland but there were also some state run institutions. The first institutions opened in 1922 and the last institution closed in 1990.

Many children born in these institutions were adopted or fostered and moved to other countries including Ireland, USA, Canada, and Australia.

This means they may have little or no documentation to prove their British nationality. They may not understand that British nationality is not lost due to being adopted (officially or unofficially) by families outside the UK and this can mean their own children and grandchildren may also have a claim to British nationality.

Whilst most customers will have been born between 1922 and 1990, it is possible they were born outside these dates or are the child or grandchild of a person adopted or fostered from these institutions. For this guidance, applications made by impacted customers will be referred to as mother and baby institution applications. Whilst not everyone affected will identify with this terminology, the intention is to be inclusive of all those impacted by the institutions and their practices.

If an application meets the indicators in Identifying a customer affected by mother and baby institutions in Northern Ireland, regardless of the customer’s year of birth, you must follow this guidance.

Examination of mother and baby institution applications

This section tells HM Passport Office staff how to examine passport applications received from customers impacted by mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and workhouses in Northern Ireland.

You, the examiner, must follow this, and existing guidance when dealing with a mother and baby application to help you confirm a customer’s identity, nationality, and entitlement.

Identifying a customer affected by mother and baby institutions in Northern Ireland

Certain factors may lead you to identify a customer as having been affected by mother and baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and workhouses in Northern Ireland this can include, but is not limited to:

• information given by the customer
• their place of birth, for example, a church institution, workhouse, or laundry in Ireland or Northern Ireland
• their documentation or lack of documentation

Supporting a customer directly affected by mother and baby institutions in Northern Ireland

Customers born, adopted, or fostered through a mother and baby institution, Magdalene Laundry, or workhouse in Northern Ireland may not have the documents we usually require to prove their nationality and identity. This topic may be difficult for these customers to explore, and their applications must be handled sensitively.

Where a customer has been impacted by a mother and baby institution adoption or fostering, you must assist give them advice about the documentation we need.

 You must:

• check which documents you need to process the passport application
• ask the customer to send you any missing documents
• continue to process the application (in line with current guidance)

If the customer cannot supply the correct documents or does not appear to have British nationality from the documents provided, you must not automatically refuse or withdraw their passport application. Instead, you must:

1. Ask for alternative documents, following the guidance for supporting documents not available, adoptions, or balance of probabilities as appropriate.

2. Add a case note detailing what documentation and information the customer has access to and can obtain.

3. Raise a guidance query informing the Quality, Examination and Support team (QuESt) you would normally refuse the application if it was not a mother and baby institution application. Put the application on hold until you receive a reply. QuESt will forward the query onto the Senior Casework team (SCT) who will copy in the Truth Recovery Enquiries inbox for review.

The SCT will discuss the application, copying in the Truth Recovery Enquires inbox, and will add a case note providing further advice on how to proceed. Until you have received a response from the Senior Casework team, you must:

• not progress the application
• put the application on hold pending a response

If the customer’s application is successful the Passport and Nationality policy team, through the Truth Recoveries inbox, will provide them with help and advice for any family members also affected.

How the advice is given to the customer will depend on how the application was progressed, and will be provided by email, letter, or phone as deemed appropriate by the Passport and Nationality policy team.

Mother and baby institution applications: Senior Casework team guidance referral

When you, the senior caseworker, receive a guidance referral about a mother and baby institution application where the examiner believes there may be no claim to British nationality, you must:

1. Make sure the examiner has completed the guidance referral form fully and accurately.

2. Consider all the documents, information, and evidence the customer sent to support their application.

3. Decide if you need to:

   • add a case note explaining how to deal with the passport application (if there is enough evidence to confirm the customer’s claim to British nationality); or,
   • discuss the application with the head of the Senior Casework team and if agreed, send the query to the Truth Recovery Enquiries inbox and ask for advice (if there is not enough evidence to confirm the customer’s claim to British nationality).

4. Reply to the examiner when the Truth Recovery Enquiries inbox reply to the query (if you sent it to them for advice).