TNAG-1191-FCO40-1493-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-the-British-nationa-1982 — Page 73

E.R.

16. My Lords, it is not a small step. It has very significant

implications for the whole schome of new citizenships created by the British Nationality Act 1981. That Act for the first time put

our citizenship law on to a clear and rational footing. Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, which is what we have under the

1948 Act, gives a confused and imprecise idea of where people belong.

It confers citizenship without regard to immigration laws which, by

controlling entry to the United Kingdom, seem to negate one of the

main purposes of citizenship.

16A. The 1981 Act gets away from this confusion by creating one

citizenship, British citizenship, for those who belong to the

United Kingdom; a second, British Dependent Territories citizenship,

for those who have connections with a dependent territory; and a

third, British Overseas citizenship, for those citizens of the

United Kingdom and Colonies who have no continuing connections with

either the United Kingdom or our remaining dependent territories.

16B.

Naturally many people who are now citizens of the United Kingdom

and Colonies will be disappointed that in future they are to be known

by a different title. But that disappointment is a price which must

be paid if we are to get away from the present misleading and

unsatisfactory position. To the extent that exceptions are made, the

position will remain misleading and unsatisfactory. It is contrary to

the logic of the 1981 Act, my lords, to describe people as British

citizens if their connections are actually with a dependent territory

and not with the United Kingdom.

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