BACKGROUND NOTE
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Section 4(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981 is a
discretionary provision which allows the Secretary of State
to register as a British citizen a British Dependent
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 a dependent territory
whose members are appointed by or on behalf of the Crown.
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
public and private sector to come to the United Kingdom
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.
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