TNAG-1191-FCO40-1493-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1982 — Page 133

DRAFT SPEECH FOR 2ND READING OF LORD BRUCE OF DONINGTON'S FALKLAND ISLANDS (BRITISH CITIZENSHIP) BILL

1. My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, on his persistence in pursuing, at this very late stage of the Session, the cause of the inhabitants of the Falkland Islanders. My noble Friend, Lord Boyd Carpenter, has of course already raised the matter in this House, but this is our first opportunity of debating it extensively. We do so on the basis of the noble Lord, Lord Bruce's Bill, which seeks to ensure that all the Falkland Islanders become British citizens. As things stand, about three quarters of them will do so, when the British Nationality Act 1981 comes into force on 1 January next year. This is so whether the noble Lord's Bill becomes law or not. But the remainder, about 400, may not do so because their ties are mainly with the Falkland Islands, while their connections with the United Kingdom are more distant.

2. Those 400 would therefore hold the important parallel citizenship which is called British Dependent Territories citizenship. That citizenship was deliberately designed to reflect, not a distancing of the holders from the United Kingdom, but a recognition of the fact that the holders' connexions are with a dependent territory rather than the United Kingdom itself.

3. My Lords, the new citizenship arrangements now set out in Part II of the British Nationality Act 1981 in no way weaken the constitutional relationship of the United Kingdom with the Falkland Islands or any other dependency. The Government have always made that absolutely plain. the White Paper which we published in July 1980, containing the outline of our proposed legislation, we said, in paragraph 16,

"The establishment of a separate citizenship for the British

Dependent Territories would in no way alter the relationship of those territories and the United Kingdom, nor the Government's obligations and commitments to the dependent territories and to their citizens".

In.

My Lords, my hon and rt hon Friends who spoke for the Government during the passage of the subsequent legislation lost no opportunity of repeating that assurance. I gladly repeat it today.

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