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British Nationality
[20 OCTOBER 1981 ]
law provides for a citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, which does not necessarily allow many of those citizens to enter either the United Kingdom or the colonies.
Therefore, I reject the charge in the amendment that this Bill will create uncertainty. Under this Bill British citizenship will carry the certainty of the right of abode in this country: a provision from which. incidentally the children of people settled here will benefit, which must include many children in the ethnic minorities. Such a provision in my book spells reassurance and certainty. I think it is worth noting that on Third Reading in another place Mr. Alexander Lyon, the honourable Member for York in another place, who is the chairman of the United Kingdom Immigrants Advisory Service and who had opposed the Bill from the Opposition Benches, expressed approval that at last we had in this Bill defined our citizenship.
This acknowledgment was scarcely surprising, for the Opposition have recognised for several years the need for a new law of nationality. As my noble friend Lady Elles showed so clearly in her speech, this however is not an easy task. The previous Government in the final event did not feel equal to the task at all, and indeed the problems of legislating afresh on nationality are considerable.
It is not that the present law is so framed that we leave it with regret, because after all the law as it stands today is illogical and very complicated. For example, how can it be defensible to deny, as the present law does deny, women the right to transmit citizenship? And how can it be defensible to restrict, as the present law does restrict, the right to transfer citizenship over- seas to children born beyond the first generation in foreign but not, I say to my noble friend Lord Auckland, in Commonwealth countries? Both those anomalies are rectified by this Bill; scarcely the injustice to which the amendment refers.
Nonetheless, however desirable a new nationality Bill may be, there are, I admit, bound to be difficultuies. But this is where the work of your Lordships' House comes in, for in this House we have built upon the work which has been done in another place. For instance, the 10-year provision in Clause 1 has, in your Lordships' House, been further eased. Your Lord- ships have brought clarity and certainty to the difficult area of citizenship by descent in Clause 3; a matter with which my noble and learned friend the Lord Advocate dealt. We have clarified the rights of those seeking entitlements throughout the Bill. We have greatly improved the entitlement to register of young Com- monwealth citizens settled here before 1st January 1973, and the House has removed entirely the language requirement for husbands and wives who apply for naturalisation. These changes made by your Lordships are the antithesis surely of the "injustice", uncer- tainties" and "insecurity" to which the amendment refers.
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My right honourable friend the Home Secretary gave an undertaking on Second Reading in another place that the Government would consider constructively the case for amendments to this Bill, and I think the House will agree that my right honourable friend has been as good as his word. I would just like to end by referring to one or two specific points. There is no justification
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for the allegation that the Bill will greatly increase statelessness. Many of our European neighbours, whose provisions for passing on citizenship by jus sanguinis are more restrictive than the proposals in this Bill, have a greater problem to face in this respect than we do.
This Bill complies with our obligations under the United Nations Convention on the reduction of statelessness, and I am very glad that in several respects it goes a great deal further than the convention; and as a result of amendments made by your Lordships we have specifically guarded against statelessness arising with children born in the second generation overseas, while of course there always remains in reserve the general discretion of the Home Secretary to register children.
Nor is there justification for the accusation of creating racial tension. The Bill gives clear entitle- ments to registration, and specifically provides a declaration that decisions which are at the Home Secretary's discretion are to be taken without regard to a person's race, colour or religion. The most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury made a specific point during the speech which he made about consultation with interested organisations. The Govern- ment certainly welcome at any time views from those organisations who would be involved in race relations and the bringing in of this Bill. But may I respond to the most reverend Primate by saying that I shall ask my right honourable friend to consider whether their views should be invited on some of the procedures necessary for bringing this new legislation into force.
My noble friend Lord Boyd-Carpenter was not only kind in his personal remarks but also characteristically downright in the views which he expressed on the Bill and also upon this amendment. To launch legislation, in essence my noble friend said, with such an amend- ment tied around its neck would create the very situations of uncertainty and tension to which the amendment refers. And surely and I add this, my Lords-this of uncertainty and tension to which the amendment refers. And surely and I add this, my Lords-this would not be a wise course to follow in trying to promote good race relations.
This is a Bill which will give British citizenship which, for the first time, will carry with it the right of abode. It will make secure the position of many people who come and settle here from overseas. After many weeks of work in your Lordships' House, in contra- diction of the amendment, the Bill will bring people together; it will not divide them. For that reason, I ask your Lordships to reject the amendment and to approve the Motion, That the Bill do now pass.
5.48 p.m.
Lord Elwyn-Jones: My Lords, this has been a serious debate, conducted, with one notable exception, in accord with the usual high standards of this honourable House. The exception was the intemperate, somewhat menacing, and arrogant speech of the noble Lord, Lord Harmar-Nicholls. That I should suffer the indignity of being lectured to about parliamentary correctness by the noble Lord really does undermine my confidence in the institution of the other place where we were together for many years. But I do not want to embark
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