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Immigration and Natonality Department
Lunar House 40 Wellesley Road Croydon CR9 2BY
HOME OFFICE
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Tel No: 081 760 2733
R A Burns Esq.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
30 August 1991
Hud. (Dr. Michelts)
1.1.79.
Dear Adver
BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981: HONG KONG
Thank you for your letter of 6 August about the question, raised by OMELCO with Lord Caithness when he was in Hong Kong recently, of registering as British citizens certain minors in Hong Kong whose parents are British citizens but who are themselves British Dependent Territory citizens.
We have just received a copy of Dr Leong's letter to Lord Caithness following this up on behalf of OMELCO.
Section 3(1) of the 1981 Act, on which OMELCO seek to rely, is open-ended. Home Office policy - perhaps for that very reason - has been to use these wide discretionary powers sparingly, in particular as a general rule only in relation to children living in the United Kingdom. Ministers have endorsed this line in relation to Hong Kong, albeit not since the 1990 Act. Clearly we could in principle reopen the issue in response to OMELCO's approach; but there are a number of considerations which make us reluctant to do so.
There is the general issue of the scope of any exercise of discretion. The fact that certain minors born before the 1981 Act came into force are BDTCs despite their parents' British citizenship, whereas children born in similar circumstances after 1 January 1983 are themselves British citizens may be regarded as anomalous; but a change of legislation inevitably means that people whose position falls to be determined under new legislation may be in a different position to those falling to be determined under old legislation. We must be slow to apply new legislation retrospectively.
OMELCO's application is inevitably in terms of children in Hong Kong. But we do not see how any concession could be made "quietly" to Hong Kong alone. It therefore seems to us difficult
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