TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS AS TO APPLICATIONS FOR REGISTRATION AS A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND COLONIES (Hansard, 11 July 1973)

§ Mr. Lane
I beg to move Amendment No. 11, in page 4, line 39, leave out from second 'Act' to end of line 42.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this amendment we are taking also Government Amendments Nos. 16 and 17.

§ Mr. Lane
These three amendments, taken together, are tidying-up amendments which are necessary after the deletion in Standing Committee of words in paragraph 1 of the schedule which would have restricted the entitlement to apply for registration as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies to people who were citizens of Pakistan on 30th January 1972, the date on which Pakistan left the Commonwealth, and to those who, having become citizens of Pakistan after that date, had applied for registration before the date on which the Bill was introduced.
We have respected the views expressed on both sides of the Committee. We accept that people who acquired citizenship of Pakistan at any time before the introduction of the Bill—largely the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, the Azad Kashmiris—shall be entitled to apply for registration under the transitional provisions whether or not they had applied before 14th May and whether or not they had arrived in this country after Pakistan had left the Commonwealth.
All that these three amendments do in tidying up is to remove words which have become unnecessary after the changes of substance that were made in Committee, which the Government recommend the House to accept.

§ Mr. Lane
I beg to move Amendment No. 26, in page 5, leave out lines 29 to 39 and insert:

'(a) is 1st September 1974 where—

(i) the application is made under section 5A of the 1948 Act and throughout the period of five years ending with the commencement of this Act the applicant has been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, or engaged in relevant employ- 1700 ment within the meaning of section 5A(3) of the 1948 Act, or partly the one and partly the other, or

(ii) the application is made under section 6(1) of the 1948 Act and at the commencement of this Act the applicant was qualified for registration under the said section 6(1), or

(b) if the application is made under the said section 5A but sub-paragraph (a)(i) above does not apply, is the earlier of the following dates, namely, 1st September 1979 and the date twelve months after the expiration of a period of five years throughout which the applicant has been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, or engaged in relevant employment within the meaning of section 5A(3) of the 1948 Act, or partly the one and partly the other, or

(c) if the application is made under the said section 6(1) but sub-paragraph (a)(ii) above does not apply, is the earlier of the following dates, namely 1st September 1979 and the date twelve months after the applicant becomes qualified for registration under the said section 6(1),

or such later date as the Secretary of State may in the special circumstances of any particular case allow.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this amendment we are taking the following amendments: No. 14, in page 5, line 32, after 'months', insert: 'or such longer period as the Secretary of State may in the special circumstances of any particular case accept'. No. 15, in page 5, line 33, after 'months', insert: 'or such longer period as the Secretary of State may in the special circumstances of any particular case accept'. and Government Amendments Nos. 24 and 25.

§ Mr. Lane
I have a long explanation of the effect and mechanics of the amendment. I do not want to hold up the House—which has another important debate to follow on this which I know hon. Members want to reach—by speaking at great length on this amendment. Perhaps I may sum it up by saying that this package of amendments is the solution that we believe it is right to put into the Bill in place of the original words now that we have given more thought to the matter as a result of one or two queries that were raised in Standing Committee.
The effect of this package is to define more fully and clearly the dates by which 1701 applications for registration must be made. These are complicated qualifications because, as the House knows, we have to deal with people who may be applying for registration through either Section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1948 or the new Section 5A of that Act.
We also have the position of Pakistanis who had been here for five years before the end of last year or who had been here for less than five years at that time. There are, therefore, different permutations and combinations of a situation of individuals who may at some point want to apply for registration as United Kingdom citizens.
It was after we looked at the word "qualified" in paragraph 2(2) which was raised by the hon. Member for Kensington, North (Mr. Douglas-Mann) that we found that the wording was not as clear as we should have liked. This is why we have rewritten the provisions completely, which among other things now include an expressed terminal date.
We have also included a power for the Secretary of State to accept an application out of time if the special circumstances of the case justify him in doing so. We had in mind here one or two of the hard cases—illness, for example, or people moving from one overseas dependent territory to another, as might arise in considering applications for citizenship. But in rewriting the provisions and setting down the dates more clearly, the special provisions that we are making, particularly the discretionary power of the Secretary of State, apply to a very few cases—what one might call borderline cases—within the mainstream of applications which will be coming in in the normal course, either immediately or as soon as five years residence has been completed, under either Section 6(1) or Section 5A.
I hope that that is sufficient explanation of this rather complicated-looking amendment, and that hon. Members opposite who have put down separate amendments relating to the discretionary power of the Secretary of State, will accept that their purpose is sufficiently covered by the last two lines of Amendment No. 26.

§ Mr. John Fraser
I am happy about the new drafting and that the Home Office has accepted the advice that I offered in the closing stages of the debates on the Bangladesh Bill—that an element of flexibility for hardship cases should be introduced. There may be people who find it very difficult to determine their status, especially if they were born in Bangladesh but resident in Pakistan or vice versa.
I am happy with the redrafting by one word of our amendments, and certainly shall not press them any further.