Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin): My Lords, the thinking behind Clause 12 as it stands is that the option to acquire British citizenship should be extended only to those British overseas citizens, British subjects and British protected persons who have no other nationality and have not previously given up another nationality and thus a right of abode elsewhere.
It is possible to give up another nationality either actively or passively. One can take the step of applying to renounce the other nationality, or one can passively let matters take their course, knowing that under the law of the country concerned inaction will result in automatic loss of the other nationality at some point. Clause 12 would exclude the option to acquire British citizenship for a person who had lost another nationality by either of these methods.
The noble lord, Lord Dholakia, has spoken clearly in favour of the amendment tabled in his name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury. Without wishing to raise his hopes, we shall reflect on this proposal. There will be an opportunity to consider the terms of the proposed registration entitlement again when the Bill returns to the House of Commons. It would be beneficial to allow ourselves a little time to reflect, without wishing to imply that one way or the other.
Lord Dholakia: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister and look forward to any possible solution to this difficulty. In the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw this amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Lord Filkin moved Amendment No. 2:
The noble Lord said: My Lords, under the nationality legislation in force before 1983, British women were unable to transmit their citizenship to any children born abroad. Under the British Nationality Act 1981, they are now able to do so on equal terms with men. Anticipating this development, the then Home Secretary announced on 7th February 1979 that he would use his discretion under the British Nationality Act 1948 to confer citizenship by registration on any foreign-born children of women born in the United Kingdom, provided they were still minors on the date of application. The practice continued after the commencement of the 1981 Act in respect of the children of British women born before commencement, since the change I have described did not have retrospective effect.
However, the scope of the discretion to confer citizenship in this way continued to be limited by statute to those who were still under the age of 18 when they applied for it. Inevitably, some of those born to British women before 1983 remained ignorant of the option of registration, or learned of it too late to take advantage. Such people may now be excluded from the United Kingdom and thus from contact with their families here, because there is no specific provision in our immigration rules for their admission. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, has spoken persuasively in favour of a permanent provision that would enable them, at last, to acquire the citizenship they would have had automatically had their ancestral connection with the UK been through the male rather than the female line. We have listened to the arguments, and this amendment is the result.
The Government's amendment would confer an entitlement to registration as a British citizen, exercisable by application, on any person born after 7th February 1961 and before 1st January 1983 who, but for gender discrimination in the previous legislation, would have acquired British citizenship automatically when the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force on the latter of those two dates. The provision would thus cover any person who, had he or she applied while still a minor, would have benefited from the policy on discretionary registration announced on 7th February 1979. By that I mean that if the person had been born on or before 7th February 1961 he would have been too old, by 7th February 1979, to be registered at the Secretary of State's discretion. In this respect the provision would be similar to that contained in Amendment No. 16, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, at Committee stage.
However, there must be a cut-off point. British women did not acquire the right to pass on their citizenship until 1983. One can only go so far towards righting the wrongs of history before the number of
Our amendment also proposesagain, consistent with the Committee stage amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Aveburythat any person so registered would become a British citizen by descent. The aim would be to place the person in the same position, as regards transmissibility of his citizenship to a further generation born abroad, as he would have been in had British citizenship been acquired automatically on commencement of the 1981 Act. I beg to move.
Lord Avebury moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 2, Amendment No. 2A:
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I am extremely grateful to the Minister for the careful attention that he has given to our representations at Committee stage, at two meetings held during the summer, and on Report. I feel a little like Oliver Twist in coming back to ask for just an extra soupcoon. If I can explain why, your Lordships will see that there is a logic in what we are now asking for.
As the Minister, Miss Beverley Hughes, said to me in a letter dated yesterday, the amendment confers,
As the Minister will recall, however, our Amendment No. 88 was rather more ambitious. As I said then, at col. 476 of the Official Report of 8th July 2002, we believe that that amendment was much the better of the two solutions. When it appeared that we might get something for the pre-1983 children, we settled on a formula that was intended to remove gender discrimination for the whole of this group of persons irrespective of their date of birth, and that was the plea that we made to the Minister at the two meetings to which I referred, as well as in correspondence and in our amendment at Report stage.
We understand that when the then government made their concession in 1979, it applied to persons who were under the age of majority at the time, and that this was the reason for the February 1961 cut-off date. It was assumed, I imagine, that anyone older
We would be saying that if you were born abroad to a British father and a foreign mother, you always got British citizenship automatically. If it was the other way round, and your mother was British, under the 1981 Act, your parents had the right to register you when you were a minor. We now recognise that an injustice was done to people whose mothers did not realise they had this right, so we will give them a new right to apply as adults. However, if you were born earlier than February 1961, you did not have any right under the 1981 Act and you are not going to have any right now as a result of this legislation.
The arrangements have the curious result that some people now get the right to apply for British citizenship for the first time since they became adults, while their siblings with exactly the same family circumstances are left out in the cold. Mr Michael Turbervillechairman of Campaign, about which the Minister will be aware from the correspondence we sent himtells me that about one-third of his 150 members will be excluded, including three of his own siblings. Our amendment removes this anomaly and the residual discrimination inherent in the government amendment.
There is no likelihood of any knock-on effect from this amendment on the rest of nationality law, and the number of people who might benefit from it is a few hundred at the most. This is a very small concession we are asking for. I appeal to the Minister to go this extra inch to comply with the principle of gender equality. I beg to move.
"BRITISH CITIZENSHIP: REGISTRATION OF CERTAIN PERSONS BORN BETWEEN 1961 AND 1983
(1) The following shall be inserted after section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981 (c. 61) (registration as British citizen)
"4C ACQUISITION BY REGISTRATION: CERTAIN PERSONS BORN BETWEEN 1961 AND 1983
(1) A person is entitled to be registered as a British citizen if
(a) he applies for registration under this section, and
(b) he satisfies each of the following conditions.
(2) The first condition is that the applicant was born after 7th February 1961 and before 1st January 1983.
(3) The second condition is that the applicant would at some time before 1st January 1983 have become a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by virtue of section 5 of the British Nationality Act 1948 (c. 56) if that section had provided for citizenship by descent from a mother in the same terms as it provided for citizenship by descent from a father.
(4) The third condition is that immediately before 1st January 1983 the applicant would have had the right of abode in the United Kingdom by virtue of section 2 of the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77) had he become a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies as described in subsection (3) above."
(2) In section 14(1) of that Act (meaning of British citizen "by descent"), in paragraph (d) after the words "section 4B" (as substituted by section 12(2) of this Act) there shall be inserted ", 4C"."
Line 11, leave out "after 7th February 1961 and"
"an entitlement to registration as a British citizen, exercisable by application to the Secretary of State, on any person born between 6 February 1961 and 1 January 1983 who, but for the sexual discrimination in the British Nationality Act 1948, would have acquired British citizenship automatically when the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force on the latter of those two dates. The provision would thus cover any person who, had he or she applied whilst still a minor, would have benefited from the policy on discretionary registration announced on 7 February 1979. In this respect it would be similar to that proposed in your amendment no. 16 at Committee stage".
Next Section
Back to Table of Contents
Lords Hansard Home Page