CODE 18-77
SS 8/78
Mr R Clift, HKGD,
cc:
Elift,
Mr Ure
WH307A
PS/Mr Onslow PS/Lord Belstead
Mr Partridge, MVD
Mr Howell, NTD
Mr Campbell, NTD
Mr Burrow s, Legal Advisers
Mr Hill, Legal Advisers
Mr McQuade, HKGD
Mr Livesey, HKGD
جالا
Reference
ORAL PQ BY LORD AVEBURY FOR REPLY ON 28 MARCH
1. The reply, supplementaries and Background Note to Lord Avebury's Oral Question come to me in Mrs Glover's absence.
2. I have two amendments to suggest. The first relates to the reply. As it is the dependent territories which are responsible for any changes to be made to their immigration ordinances, I do not think we can forecast with absolute certainty that 'persons who hold belonger status on 31 December 1982 will continue to hold that status'. I have mentioned this to Mr Howell, Head of NTD and Mr Howell suggests amending the beginning of the last sentence to read 'We expect that persons who hold belonger status!..., This suggestion meets my point very well.
2.
In paragraph 2 of the Background Note, the last sentence reads: - 'The British Nationality Act 1981 did not alter the immigration status of any person who previously held citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies'. Strictly speaking, this statement is not wholly accurate. Some persons who previously qualified for the right of abode lost that right upon the commencement of the British National Act 1981. were persons born outside the United Kingdom and Colonies who were entitled to be registered as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies under Section 1(1) of the British Nationality Act (No 2) 1964 because they were stateless and their mothers were citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. Such persons would have been registered within the United Kingdom or independent Commonwealth countries by High Commissioners. As such, they would have had the right of abode under Section 2(la) of the Immigration Act 1971 (and see Section 2(4)). However, a number will have lost their right of abode if they held it under Section 2(la) alone, the event that
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