it has developed is given in the Green Paper of April 1977. However, in order to make this White Paper reasonably self-contained the relevant passage the earlier document, with only minor alterations, are reproduced at Appeax B, together with some estimate of the numbers of people involved.
8. The subject is developed in this White Paper as follows. Part B deals with the new citizenships to be established-three, rather than two as suggested in the Green Paper. Part C sets out the proposed transitional provisions by which the new citizenships will be conferred on people who are Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies when the new legislation comes into force.
9. Thereafter these new citizenships are dealt with in turn, in Parts D, E and F, each of which is divided to show the various arrangements by which that citizenship will be acquired and lost once the Act is in force. In preparing legislation the Government will take account of the United Kingdom's obliga- tions under relevant international conventions. Part G deals with a number of miscellaneous nationality matters, and Part H explains briefly what consequen- tial amendments will need to be made to the Immigration Act 1971 to take account of the new nationality law. Brief explanations of the current law are included as each branch of the subject is dealt with.
10. Appendix C contains a list of dependencies and their populations. Appendix D contains a glossary of nationality terms in present use.
B. THE NEW CITIZENSHIPS
The Response to the Green Paper
11. The last Government concluded in the Green Paper that a new scheme of citizenship should reflect the strength of the connection which various groups of people have with the United Kingdom in the world today; they thought there should be a more meaningful citizenship for those who have close links with the United Kingdom (and who could be expected to identify themselves with British society). They proposed that those holding this new citizenship should be known as British Citizens. The remaining Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies should become British Overseas Citizens. These would include people connected with existing dependencies and those who, when previous colonies, protectorates, etc. became independent, retained our citizen- ship; as well as those who have become Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies in other ways.
12. In response to the Green Paper there was much general support for two citizenships, though there were differences of view about what the scope of each should be. There was however strong support for a separate citizenship for people connected with the United Kingdom. Some correspondents were in favour of separate citizenships for individual dependencies.
13. As to where the boundaries of British Citizenship should be drawn, there was some support for the view that those Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies overseas who have no ties with or right of entry into the United Kingdom or an existing dependency—usually referred to as United Kingdom
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passport holders (UKPH)—should become British Citizens with a right of entry United Kingdom rather than British Overseas Citizens with no such
into
right
The Government's View
14. The Government have given very careful consideration to these questions. They agree with their predecessors that the Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies should disappear altogether, and that everyone holding it at the time of coming into force of the new legislation should acquire a new citizen- ship; no one should be left without one. They agree also that there should be a separate citizenship for those people connected with the United Kingdom itself, and that this should be called 'British Citizenship'. The controversial issue, referred to a good deal in correspondence on the Green Paper, is whether the boundaries of British Citizenship should be drawn more widely than was contemplated therein, particularly in the transitional arrangements suggested; and this question is discussed further in paragraphs 20 and 26 below.
15. Next, the Government are impressed with the argument that positive recognition of the status of the remaining dependencies should be given in citizenship terms. They do not think it is really practicable to establish individual citizenships for each of the dependent territories; they vary in size and political organisation. They believe that a better solution would be to establish a separate citizenship for the dependencies as a whole; and they would propose in the Bill that this should be called 'Citizenship of the British Dependent Territories'.
16. The establishment of a separate citizenship for the British Dependent Territories would in no way alter the relationship between those territories and the United Kingdom, nor the Government's obligations and commitments to the dependent territories and to their citizens.
17. The people who are now Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies but do not qualify either for British Citizenship or the Citizenship of the British Dependent Territories would become ‘British Overseas Citizens.'
Eligibility for British Citizenship
18. The Government will propose that when the new nationality law comes into operation the people who should become British Citizens are those Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who have a close personal connection with the United Kingdom. Generally speaking this means those people who or whose parents or grandparents were born, adopted, naturalised or registered in the United Kingdom. In addition those Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies from overseas who have been settled here for some time should also become British Citizens. These provisions are set out in greater detail in para- graphs 32-33.
19. One small group of persons on whom the Government do not think it right to confer British Citizenship as a whole are those formerly stateless persons who have been registered as Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies under the British Nationality (No. 2) Act 1964 (and consequently have the right of abode in the United Kingdom) because their mothers are Citizens
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