Originally Posted by
simonsmith
We did this with my Nephew , again going to Italy .
No questions asked when taking him out of the UK .
coming back however despite parental letter they wanted to interview him separately and ring his parents .........
Whilst a pain in some ways the approach is of course better to safeguard him if you weren't his uncle. It's a sad world we live in but better he's taken away from you briefly to establish such things than it being easy for him to be trafficked.
Whilst it's still advisable to have such letters the oft lack of issues is that there is a pretty decent system in place for identifying at risk minors passing through airports in the UK( including those travelling with their own parents). It isn't perfect, no system is, but it is pretty effective.
OP having additional things like his parents passport copies etc should help speed up any delays but hey I think we can all agree it's a case of where we'd rather the authorities aired on the 'better safe than sorry' side of things