§ Mr. Stanbrookasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the estimate of the number of British protected persons; where they are located; how many do not possess an additional nationality or citizenship status; and what steps are being taken to bring the status to an end.
§ Mr. RentonNot all British protected persons abroad register with our missions, so it is not possible to give a reliable estimate of their number. However, records held by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office suggest that the total figure is well under 10,000, the majority of them resident in eastern and central Africa and in India.
No estimate can be given of how many British protected persons possess an additional nationality or citizenship status, but since 1 January 1983 a person has lost British protected person status automatically on the acquisition of another nationality.
As there are no remaining protectorates or protected states from which the status can be derived, and because it is now lost on the acquisition of another nationality and is transmissible only in certain very limited circumstances where a child would otherwise be stateless, the number of British protected persons will steadily diminish until the status eventually becomes extinct.