HC Deb 04 February 1958 vol 581 cc165-6W
109. Mr. Paget

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give a list of the categories of persons whose rights will be affected by the British Nationality Bill [Lords], and the manner in which such rights will be affected.

Mr. R. A. Butler

As a result of Clause 1 (1) (b) of the Bill—

  1. (a) a person who is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent only will no longer transmit his citizenship to his children born in the Protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, unless he is in the service of the Crown under the United Kingdom Government;
  2. (b) a British subject will not be entitled to registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by virtue of residence in those Protectorates;
  3. (c) an alien in the United Kingdom will not be entitled to count residence in those Protectorates after the Clause comes into operation as qualifying him to apply for naturalisation, save by the exercise of a special discretion by the Secretary of State;
  4. (d) British protected persons belonging to Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, although retaining their status as British protected persons, will not be able to apply to the Governors of those territories for naturalisation by virtue of residence there, though under the citizenship law of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland they will be able to acquire British nationality by the simple process of registration as Federal citizens.

By Clause 2 certain persons who are also citizens of Ghana will lose their citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies. There is virtually no difference in United Kingdom law between citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies and other British subjects, and since all the persons who are to lose citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies under Clause 2 will continue to be British subjects, their rights in United Kingdom law will remain almost entirely unaffected. The only changes will be that—

  1. (a) the transmission of British nationality to their children born abroad will depend on the law of Ghana;
  2. (b) if they adopt an alien child in the United Kingdom the adoption will not confer United Kingdom citizenship on it; and
  3. (c) they will have to look to the Ghana authorities for the issue of a passport and for the protection which the issue of such a passport implies.

As a result of subsection (5) of Clause 2, a woman will not be entitled to registration as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by reason of her having been married to such a citizen if her husband has ceased to be such a citizen under Clause 2.

Forward to