8. Next, I am advised that the effect of the new section 10A(1)(b)
which clause 1 would insert into the parent Act is anomalous.
It confers British citizenship on anyone who was ordinarily resident
immediately before commencement. It does not say that he or she must
have been ordinarily resident for any particular length of time.
In the analogous situation governing the presence here of citizens of
the United Kingdom and Colonies who do not have the right of abode,
the Act says, in effect, that they will only become, British citizens
if they have been settled here for 5 years or more. So it is anomalous
that the ordinary residence demanded of you if you are in the Falkland
Islands can be as little as one day. It would also, since there is
no analogous residence requirement in Part II of the 1981 Act, actually
be easier to become a British citizen through residence in the Islands
than it would be to become a British Dependent Territories citizen.
That seems odd.
9.
The new section 10A(1)(b) also refers to people whose parents were
settled in the Falkland Islands before commencement, apparently in
order to give them British citizenship by descent. But they would be
British citizens otherwise than by descent, since no amendment has been
suggested to section 14, which sets out who is to be a citizen by
descent. It would, however, again be anomalous for someone born outsid
the territory concerned to be a citizen otherwise than by descent unles
special factors applied.