}
before commencement.
8. Next, I am advised that the effect of the new section 10A(1)(b), which clause I would insert into the parent Act, is anomalous. It confers British citizenship on anyone who was ordinarily resident immediately.
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 in the United Kingdom. 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 outside the territory concerned to be a citizen otherwise than by descent unless special factors applied.
10. I know it will be said that these defects are purely technical and that the right place to correct them is in Committee. I do not dispute
that, my Lords, but I felt it right to indicate that there were drafting deficiencies. They were one of the reasons why the Government did not feel that it would have been right to allow a Bill in these terms
to pass undebated through another place when it was introduced there by Mr Kilroy-Silk.
11. My Lords, whatever the fate of the noble Lord's Bill, I must stress that the Government believe that it has already, in other ways, taken very full account of the special needs of the Falkland Islanders. Indeed, we have consistently undertaken to bear their special circumstances in mind.
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