HC Deb 08 May 1968 vol 764 cc102-3W
Mr. Beaney

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what are the requirements of the nationality rules to satisfy entry into the Royal Air Force Apprenticeship Scheme; and why 17-year-old Ronald Soroczynski, 30, Ferndale Place, Hemsworth, was refused acceptance.

Mr. Merlyn Rees

The nationality rules which apply to all persons seeking entry to all branches of the Armed Forces, apart from other rank entrants to the Army, require the candidate to satisfy the Service authorities that:

  1. (a) at all times since birth he or she has been a British subject or citizen of the Irish Republic, and
  2. (b) he or she was born in a country or territory which is (or then was) within the Commonwealth or the Irish Republic, and
  3. (c) each of his or her parents was born in a country or territory which is (or then was) within the Commonwealth or the Irish Republic and is (or was at death) a British subject or a citizen of the Irish Republic and is or has been one or the other at all times from birth.

Ronald Soroczynski does not meet these rules because his father was born in Poland. There is provision for the rules to be waived in exceptional circumstances but there were no grounds for the waiver to be exercised in this case.