HC Deb 10 November 1933 vol 48 c210W
Mr. Key

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what advice and assistance he gives to doctors recruited and deployed by his Department who are seeking full British citizenship for their children on the grounds that they were serving outside the United Kingdom and their wives were already pregnant when the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Rifkind

This is a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to whom any such inquiries would normally be referred.

Mr. Key

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he took to inform staff recruited for service overseas before the provisions of the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force that children born to them would not necessarily have full British citizen status; and when.

Mr. Rifkind

British embassies and high commissions were fully informed about the provisions of the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force in January 1983, and material was sent to them during 1982 to assist in explaining the Act to British nationals serving abroad. The Overseas Development Administration wrote individually to technical co-operation officers and supplemented staff in May 1983 informing them of the provisions of the Act.

Mr. Key

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will consider paying for wives of technical co-operation officers and overseas social aid scheme staff to return to the United Kingdom for confinements, both on health grounds and in order to ensure that their children where otherwise eligible will become British citizens other than by descent.

Mr. Rifkind

The wives of technical co-operation officers—TCOs—are already entitled to return to the United Kingdom for confinements at public expense.

My officials are at present considering whether, on health grounds, public funds should be used to extend the same concession to the wives of overseas service aid scheme and British expatriate supplementation scheme officers.