§ Lord O'HAGANasked Her Majesty's Government:
What definition of a British national was attached to the British Treaty of Accession to the EEC; and how many British subjects, resident in the EEC, and elsewhere, are not British nationals.
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS: Upon signing the Treaty of Accession to the European Economic Community, Her Majesty's Government declared that the term " Nationals " should for Community purposes be taken to refer to:
- (a) persons who are citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies or British subjects not possessing that citizenship or the citizenship of any other Commonwealth country or territory, who, in either case, have the right of abode in the United Kingdom and are therefore exempt from United Kingdom immigration control;
- (b) persons who are citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth or by registration or naturalisation in Gibraltar, or whose father was so born, registered or naturalised.
There is no way of assessing the total number of British subjects who are not United Kingdom nationals; it would include most citizens of Commonwealth countries other than the United Kingdom and Colonies. Nor is it known how many persons for whom Her Majesty's Government are internationally responsible (United Kingdom nationals in the ordinary sense) fall outside the definition for the purposes of the European Economic Community; they include citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies and British protected persons primarily connected with dependent or former Dependent Territories, some British subjects born before 1949 and connected with the Republic of Ireland, and some British subjects without citizenship born before 1949 and connected with former British India.
House adjourned at eight o'clock.