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19 JUL 1979
38
With
NATIONALITY BILL
PROBLEM
No
J24.7
M2
To reply to a letter from the Private Secretary to the Home Secretary of 5 July seeking the Secretary of State's views on a paper which Mr Whitelaw wishes to circulate to the Home Affairs. Committee on 17 or 24 July. The paper includes a number of proposals which we cannot endorse in their present form. We therefore need to persuade the Home Secretary to delay the circulation of his paper to allow time for the outstanding differences to be resolved. The Secretary of State's support will be necessary if the Home Office are to be moved on the main issue in dispute, the proposal to peo
create a new British Overseas Citizenship.
RECOMMENDATION
2. I recommend that the Private Secretary should reply
to Mr Butler on the lines of the attached draft.
BACKGROUND AND ARGUMENT
3.
There are a number of areas of disagreement between the FCO and the Home Office over the proposed legislation which clearly fall within the FCO's sphere of interest. These include:-
i)
the status of dependency; belongers (British Overseas Citizens, in the proposed legislation);
ii)
iii)
the abandonment of British Subject status;
the implications of limiting transmission of citizenship by descent to one generation only;
/iv)
CONFIDENTIAL