XN000022-1996-12-05 — Page 12

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The Honourable Member asked what would happen if somebody turned up with a passport which they had acquired under the British Nationality Scheme and asked for consular protection. Let me make the point once again that what will not happen is that there won't be any question at the British Consulate about how they got their scheme implying that if they got it through the British Nationality Scheme it somehow entitles them to less than if they got it through birth or marriage or in some other way. They will get full consular protection until it can be established or unless it is established that they are a dual national.

Now, what would be the sort of evidence that would establish that? It is always extremely dangerous to get involved in hypotheticals and I am not going to do that this evening, but I will give you one obvious example where it would be difficult to refute that the person was a dual national. Let me read what it says in an SAR passport - if it is in slightly larger letters. An SAR passport says, in the notes on page 2, number 2:

"The bearer of this passport is a Chinese citizen."

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So it would be quite difficult to argue that somebody who had an SAR passport was not a dual national. But I repeat, that does not mean that that person, in the British Consulate, would not receive - not the formal consultation which I was reading out about earlier but would not receive assistance in the way that people with dual nationality receive assistance today. We have a particular obligation to our citizens whether they are dual nationals or not. We have an enhanced obligation to those citizens where they are not dual nationals.

Mr Albert Ho (in Chinese): Was the Governor saying this: in future, be it the SARG or the Chinese Government, if it issues an announcement or an order to the effect that those who acquired the British passport under the BNSS will be regarded as a Chinese citizen, now in future if such a person goes to the British Consulate and asks for consulate protection, can the Governor tell us that the British Consulate will disregard the announcement or the order made by the SARG or the Chinese Government because there is no way to prove whether or not that particular person has obtained the British passport under the selection scheme, and therefore full consular protection would be offered to that person?

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Governor: The Honourable gentleman is home in one. The point that I have been secking to make is that no one else can tell Britain who is a British citizen, who has a British passport, and we would not accept it - to repeat myself as relevant to or evidence of dual nationality whether somebody had acquired their passport under the British Nationality Scheme. So far as we are concerned - let me repeat again - a passport is a passport is a passport.