BACKGROUND NOTE
2.
3.
4.
Section 4(5)
of
as
a
a
is 1981 British Nationality Act the discretionary provision which allows the Secretary of State to register
British Dependent British citizen a Territories citizen who is or has been in Crown Service under the government of a dependent territory or who is or has been in some other paid or unpaid service as a member of any body established by law in dependent territory whose members are appointed by or on behalf of the Crown.
a
The reason for the question is assumed to be to ascertain how many Hong Kong BDTCS [in the public sector] have an avenue to British citizenship under existing arrangements in order to compare this with the number that would benefit under the arrangements announced on 20 December.
There was no surge of applications under section 4(5) as a result of the events in China last summer, probably because the government announced they were working up a scheme to allow greater flexibility for BDTCs in Hong Kong in both the to the United Kingdom public and private sector to come and/or acquire British citizenship.
Although it may be appropriate to exercise the discretionary power in section 4(5) more flexibly in a limited number of cases, it is currently envisaged that the primary avenue to British citizenship for Hong Kong Crown Servants will be under the scheme announced on 20 December.
:
1