DRAFT SPEECH FOR 2ND READING OF LORD BRUCE OF DONINGTON'S FALKLAND ISLANDS (BRITISH CITIZENSHIP) BILL
1.
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of
Donington, on his persistence in pursuing, at this very late stage
in the Session, the cause of the inhabitants of the Falkland Islanders.
lle seeks to ensure that all the Islanders become British citizens.
As things stand, about three quarters of them will do so, when the
British Nationality Act 1981 comes into force on 1 January next year.
This is so whether the noble Lord's Bill becomes law or not. But the
remainder, about 400, may not do so because their ties are mainly with
the Falkland Islands, while their connections with the United Kingdom
are more distant.
2.
Those 400 would therefore hold the important parallel citizenship
which is called British Dependent Territories citizenship.
That
citizenship was deliberately designed to reflect, not a distancing of
the holders from the United Kingdom, but a recognition of the fact
that the holders' connexions are with a dependent territory rather than
the United Kingdom itself.
3. My Lords, the new citizenship arrangements now set out in Part II
of the British Nationality Act 1981 in no way weaken the constitutional
relationship of the United Kingdom with the Falkland Islands or any
other dependency. The Government have always made that absolutely plai
1.
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