TNAG-1082-FCO40-1332-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1981 — Page 44

DRAFT PRESS NOTICE

BRITISH NATIONALITY BILL :

GOVERNMENT AMENDMENTS

The Government has put down amendments to the British Nationality Bill, now in Committee in the House of Commons. These would give citizens of the British Dependent Territories, British Overseas Citizens, certain British subjects, and British protected persons a right to be registered as British citizens after being lawfully resident in this country for five years.

Previously it was envisaged that people in these groups who made their home here should have to apply for British citizenship by naturalisation like citizens of Commonwealth and foreign countries, unless they had been settled here when the Bill came into force. But the Government has concluded that these people have rather a different relationship with the United Kingdom to citizens of Commonwealth and foreign countries and this should be reflected in their access to the new British citizenship.

The Home Secretary would also have power to register as a British citizen a person, holding these statuses, who has served the Crown in the dependent territories. The power, which would be used only sparingly, would enable the Home Secretary to recognise particularly deserving cases of service to the Crown in the dependent territories.