RESTRICTED
-6-
United Kingdom and allows discretionary registration of Crown
Servants and certain other people serving in the Dependent
Territories who are appointed by or on behalf of the Crown as
British Citizens.]
[Defensive, if raised]
The provisions of the British Nationality Act 1981 for the
acquisition of British Dependent Territories citizenship apply
equally to those who have the necessary connections with the
Falkland Islands. Nothing in the British Nationality (Falkland
Islands) Act 1983 affects this.
The latter Act received the Royal Assent on 28 March 1983
and is deemed to have come into effect on 1 January 1983. It was introduced by my noble Friend Baroness Vickers and it
provides for the acquisition of British citizenship, and with it the right of abode in the United Kingdom, by some 400 persons who would not otherwise acquire it, though my right honourable
Friend the Home Secretary announced in April that no Falkland
Islander would have any difficulty over admission to the United Kingdom whether he had right of abode or not. Thus the majority
of Falkland Islanders are now both British citizens and British
Dependent Territories citizens.
[Defensive if raised
My right honourable Friend's suggestion that dependent
territories should be integrated into the United Kingdom is not
a new one. It has been discussed at one time or another in
relation to several of the Dependent Territories, for example
Malta in the 1950s, and in the years since then Seychelles and Gibraltar. The proposals were not followed up, however, because of their impracticability. Integration implies permanent assimilation into the metropolitan power. This would involve not only representation in the metropolitan legislature (clearly
impractical for such small constituencies) but also equalisation
of legislation, social services and taxation. This would raise
RESTRICTED