ACQUISITION BY BIRTH OR ADOPTION (Hansard, 27 October 1981)

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Richard Luce)
I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

§ Mr. Speaker
With this it will be convenient to take Government consequential amendments and Government amendments to Lords amendments Nos. 35, 37, 47, 49, 53 and 89.

§ Mr. Luce:
The amendment would change the first reference to a citizen of the British dependent territories in clause 14(1) to a British dependent territories' citizen. The only difference between the description now proposed and that currently in the Bill is in the order of the words. It would mean that "British" would appear first in the title.
We have stressed more than once, both in the House and in another place, that the Bill will not alter the present constitutional relationship between the United Kingdom and its dependent territories. Nevertheless, we accept that many people in the territories would prefer that their citizenship title began with the word "British" to make completely clear their links with this country.
The new description would not alter their status. If the status were to be described as is proposed, we do not believe that the relationship of the holders of it to the United Kingdom would be different from what is envisaged in the Bill as it stands. This change in title, however small it may seem to hon. Members, will be warmly welcomed by the dependent territories.
Once the amendment has been agreed, it will be necessary to make similar changes to other references to citizens and citizenship of the British dependent territories throughout the Bill and in relevant Lords amendments that are agreed by the House. That is what the consequential amendments are designed to achieve. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department dealt with the important issue raised earlier on the power of punctuation, as argued by the right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell). I hope that the right hon. Gentleman feels that that issue has been dealt with adequately.

§ Mr. Tilley
First, I congratulate the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on his new status, on avoiding the guillotine by a few minutes and on managing to put in a brief appearance before we return to matters concerning these islands and the responsibilities of the Minister of State, Home Office.
It is clear that the apostrophe is already in the ashcan of history. I do not think that we need go into the grammatical aspects of the new phraseology. Its purpose, as was made clear in another place, is to enable those in the dependent territories to call themselves British people when they are asked to state their nationality either when completing forms or when asked directly by an official. It does not change the status of their passports. Any immigration officer in any part of the world who knows his job will be well aware that their status is different from that of British citizens in part I.
The representatives from Hong Kong—I am sorry that the hon. Member for Howden (Sir P. Bryan), who knows their feelings and fears especially well, is no longer in his place—wanted to be seen as British. They did not want the same treatment as Gibraltarians in the sense of acquiring British citizenship and the right of entry. They wanted to be seen as British nationals in terms of international law. They do not have that. However, I think that they will be happy, although they have little more than a shadow of it in the new terminology which puts "British" at the beginning of the category in which they now come. 785 As I have said, every colony is a special case. We have argued that umbrella citizenship was wrong because each colony was a separate case and should have been dealt with as such. We said that there was no reason for the far-flung bits of empire that are left to us to have the same citizenship. We argued further that giving separate citizenship would not hinder the acquisition of independence, which we contend is the objective of all the colonies that still remain, where that is legally possible.
During the Bill's passage two of the territories in schedule 6 have acquired independence—namely, one colony, Belize, and one associated state, Antigua. We welcome that. If there were time, we would discuss the status of those ex-colonies on the various amendments that remove them from schedule 6 and place them in schedule 3 as full independent members of the Commonwealth.
In Committee the Minister of State said that the various immigration rules of the colonies would have to be brought into line with the citizenship provisions in part II. He added that he had every expectation that that would be done. What progress has been made? During the long interval in which we have been determining the final shape of the Bill, I think that the main outlines have been clear. I am sure that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been at work.
An area of particular concern was Bermuda. Has there been any effective progress? If not, how long will it be before the hon. Gentleman is in a position to report that progress has been made? We are anxious that immigration and citizenship should go hand in hand with British citizenship. We may argue about which hand should be in which when discussing citizenship and immigration, but we have never suggested that there should not be a close connection.
In another place Lord Tanlaw talked about Pitcairn. He said that short-wave radio hams were receiving pleas for information from those who claimed to be natives of Pitcairn. As one was Mr. Christian, I assume that the messages were genuine. If the Minister does not have time to reply before the guillotine falls, perhaps he will let us have a reply by letter or by some other suitable means—

§ Mr. Selwyn Gummer (Eye)
Or by short wave radio.

§ Mr. Tilley
I think that the Whip means "Don't ring us, we'll ring you."
It being Eight o'clock, MR. SPEAKER proceeded, pursuant to Order [26 October], to put the Question already proposed from the Chair.
Question, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment, put and agreed to.

§ Mr. Speaker
then proceeded to put forthwith the Questions necessary for the disposal of the business to be concluded at Eight o'clock.
Consequential amendments agreed to.

§ Mr. Speaker
I am required to put the Question on any Government amendment to a Lords amendment followed by the Question, That this House doth agree with the Lords in that amendment, as amended. The Lords amendments in question are Nos. 35, 37, 43, 47, 49 and 53. To save time, and if the House will give me permission, I shall put together the Government amendments to those Lords amendments.
Amendments to Lords amendments agreed to.