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British Nationality Bill
28 JANUARY 1981
[Mr. Timothy Raison]
of laws, ranging from the Act of Settlement of 1701 to the Income and Corpention. Toxes Act 1970. The
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The Bill therefore my's notam anent qive it proposes no chamates in a tom, but of car as and know that our country d. derretizenslaap v up by citizens of many ethil Packgrounds. There can be no doubt about that.
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This is that our present citizensão” and Colonies, as is name par United Kingdom and overseas, lerntones. It does not identify those who belong to Jars country and have the right to live and enter here freely. In consequence it prevents the United Kingdom from basing its immigration policies on citizenship.
Our citizenship is in these respects different from the citizenship of many other countries, including our partners in the European Community. That is the particular weakness of the present scheme. It does British citizenship that confers the right of apode on those who hold it. Nor does it convey the status of those who belong to our dependent territories,
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Those who go into our third category, of British overseas citizenship, will also recognise that citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies hardly describes their present situation, when they may not be adrzited to either the United Kingdom or the colonies. So the break-up of the United Kingdom and Colomies into tre categories therefon: broady & Lis what has happened. It is entry nghi thai sang who at present itove Un, ed. Kingdom and Colonies or 17 Lish-protected person status without abode should not be left high and dry as temas of citizenship, but it does not make sense that this unk shonidd be perpetuated from generation to generation. As ny mị hi hon. Friend made clear, we shall cori nue to take the United Kingdom passport holder voucher hol ers under the present scheme. In que course, howeyn z. Brush overseas citize ship will die out and the soc those who held it will expect to belong to tãe count; es where they live. It is worth adding that the present CUKO status of those who will become British, overseas citizens also cannot be transmitted indefinter by descent except in those cases where they live in foreign countries and can use consular registration. British overseas citizenship is essentially the same as that referred to in the Labour Party's Green Paper scheme for British overseas citizens without abode. Any attempt to argue otherwise can easily be disproved.
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I turn to what has been an important part of the debate. citizenship of the British Dependent Territories. A number { of my hon. Friends raised important ponis. As expected,
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British Nationality Bill
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argumen's for special treatment of one sort or another of behalf of individual territories were put forward. Som hon. Members asked for separate citizenships for cact Territory. The Government recognise the strength of these sentimens. We aflirm our commitment to the territories and the enzat importance of maintaining our links with for nationalty, however, we believe that the scheme proposed in the Bill is the most satifactory way of sealing with the subject. No doubt the first choice of the dependencies generally would be to retain a common citizenship with that of the people of the United Kingdom itself, if that was possible. If we are to have a distinctive citizenship for the United Kingdom, carrying with it the right of abode in the United Kingdom, there must be other arrangements for the dependencies.
We believe that the citizenship for the dependencies should be a composite one. In reply to my hon, and learned Frend the Member for Darwen (Sir C. Fletcher-Cooke), i do not believe that it would be satisfactory to give each dependency its own citizenship. I doubt whether many dependencies would wish to have their own separate status. My hon. and learned Friend must recognise that some of them are very small countries. The idea of giving them citizenship would pose considerable problems. The proposed citizenship emphasises the British connection, which is basically what the dependencies want.
Mr. Alexander W. Lyon: Will it be the case, as now, that these colonies will be issued with a passport that says "British Dependent Territories (Hong Kong)" or “British Dependent Territories (Anguilla)"? If that is so, is there any difficulty in giving them an Anguillan passport or a Hong Kong passport?
Mr. Raison: I shall return to the question of how we see the passport evolving under the new scheme.
I wish to refer to Gibraltar, a subject raised by a number of hon. Members, notably my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire, East (Mr. McQuarrie) and also the hon. Member for Glasgow, Central (Mr. McTaggart). They referred, understandably, to the close link -all share the sentiment-between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom and asked that Gibraltarians should become British citizens instead of, or in addition to, being cruzens of a British Dependent Territory.
We have considered carefully the representations received to this effect. We recognise the strength of these seniments and sympathise with them. However, for the reasons given by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary we have concluded that citizenship of the dependent termories should apply in a uniform way throughout those territories. I want to refute completely the suggestion that Cuizenship of the British Dependent Territories is a second-class ettizenship, it is a parallel citizenship. It does cot mavemany affect the present position of Gibraltarians in relation to the United Kingdom. The rights arising from Gibraltar's membership of the European Community will not be affected by the Bill. Nor
there any question in nursent circumstances of the administrative concession for entry into the United Kingdom, arising from the unique circumstances of Gibraltar, being withdrawn.
As the House might expect, my hon. Friend the Member for Howden (Sir P. Bryan) spoke of his special concern for the problems of Hong Kong, about which he kaows so much. He stressed the desire of the people of Hong Kong to contribute to the links with the United
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