Commonwealth Citizens and British Nationality (Hansard, 21 March 1983)

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Elton)
My Lords, procedures for handling applications for citizenship are kept under continuous review with a view to improving them and reducing the time taken to deal with applications. Delays are still longer than we would wish, but we are satisfied that good progress is being made to reduce them.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that reply. May I ask him whether he is aware that many of these folk who have to submit applications have to send with their papers their passport, birth certificate and, where applicable, their marriage lines? To be without these documents for some time can be inconvenient. Noble Lords will appreciate that when we surrender something it seems that the next day we require those documents for something. Particularly so far as passports are concerned, Commonwealth 928 citizens who have submitted such applications and have had to surrender their passports are men and women engaged in industry and commerce who have to travel considerably. Also, those who have organised holidays for a specific period find themselves filled with apprehension because their passports and documents have not been returned. Would it not be possible for them to be recorded, perhaps reproduced, and for the original to be returned within a reasonable space of time?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, we are aware of the difficulties which the noble Lord has mentioned, and we sympathise with them. The guidance notes for completion of application forms recommend to applicants that if they are likely to need their passports or other documents within six months then they should explain why and should not enclose the documents concerned with the application. The documents will then be requested when the application reaches its turn for consideration. However, our nationality division are always ready to comply with requests for the return of documents in individual cases and will in the majority of instances not require to see that document again.

§ The Earl of Lauderdale
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that an authenticated photocopy would meet the case?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, they might meet the case for verification; but if every document received had to be photostated—and there are many pages in some of these documents—the waiting time would be increased and not reduced.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that, in evidence given by his department to the Select Committee in another place last week, it was stated that the delay in processing applications for discretionary registration had been reduced from 23 to 16 months following the reforms recommended by Sir Derek Rayner, and that it was the Government's intention to get the period down to 12 months ultimately? Is not a delay of 12 months susceptible of further reduction by concentrating on the police inquiries, which, I understand, particularly in the metropolitan area, are the greatest cause of the delay as well as contributing the largest share to the cost of the exercise?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, I can confirm that we are anxious, as I have already said, to reduce the waiting time. It may help to illuminate the difficulties under which we labour if I say that in January and February 1982 there were 5,305 and 5,444 applications respectively, and in the same months this year the numbers were 12,786 and 15,149 respectively.

§ Lord Brockway
My Lords, is the Minister aware that when I asked for a renewal of my passport, although I was a Member of Parliament I was told that I was not a British citizen because I was born in India and my father was born in Africa? But by simple registration I became a British citizen. Can there not be a procedure of registration as simple as that by which this problem can be solved?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, I felicitate the noble Lord on joining us in his nationality by a procedure which is that which I have already described.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, while the noble Lord is at it, will he congratulate all those people—probably running into tens of thousands of Commonwealth citizens—who have always been part of us but now want to confirm being part of us? Is he further aware that when he talks about a number of pages, there is one page on a birth certificate and there is one page on marriage lines? He should tell the civil servant who wrote that answer for him these simple facts. Regarding passports, the quintessential part required in other areas of this country for proof purposes is the very first page on which is stated the age of the subject, to whom the passport belongs and for how long it is valid. If the noble Lord really is prepared to consider seriously what I am suggesting, I am sure that he will receive the thanks of tens of thousands of our Commonwealth citizens who are acting swiftly to fulfil their desire to be British citizens and the bureaucrats are holding them up from doing so.

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, I can only assure the noble Lord that we wish to accelerate the process in the way that he describes. He was kind enough to tell me the line on which he was thinking and I have already inquired about this matter. I am informed that it will take longer to deal with it in this way and it will not be quicker. If the noble Lord cannot accept that, I ask him to take a passport up to the copying machine on the first floor of this building and see how long it takes to put through and then multiply that by approximately 15,000.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, I did that. It took me 30 seconds flat because there was no one else there. If he would like me to give his department a few hints, I am prepared to do so for a reasonable understanding.

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, in this case there will be 15,148 other people there.