§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his estimate of the number of citizens of Commonwealth countries who are patrial under section 2 of the Immigration Act 1971 and who have never been in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. RaisonThere is no reliable basis on which to make such an estimate.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies have acquired citizenship by descent from an ancestor not closer than a great-grandfather; where they are resident; and how many of them have nationality of the country in which they are resident;
(2) how many children have acquired citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies by first generation descent from British residents in each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. RaisonI regret that this informaton is not available.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons have been registered as 568W citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies under the British Nationality (No. 2) Act 1965; where they are now resident; and what are their ages.
§ Mr. RaisonSome 1,000 persons have been registered as citizens of the United Kingdom and colonies under the British Nationality (No. 2) Act 1964, which is, I presume, the Act to which the hon. Member refers. Information as to where the persons registered are now resident is not available and precise information about their ages could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, as the Act gives an entitlement to registration to persons who are and always have been stateless and whose mothers were citizens of the United Kingdom and colonies at the time they were born, it is reasonable to assume that most of them were born abroad and were children at the time of registration.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have acquired citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies by second or subsequent generation descent from British residents for each of the last 10 years; of these how many were the offspring of fathers on Crown service; and how many were registered at the British consulate.
§ Mr. RaisonThere is no information available on the numbers of people of the second or subsequent generation born overseas who have acquired citizenship of the United Kingdom and colonies by reason of their father's Crown Service at the time of their birth. Information about the numbers of people of the second or subsequent generation born overseas whose acquisition of citizenship of the United Kingdom and colonies by descent depended on the registration of their births at a British consulate could be obtained only a disproportionate cost.