HL Deb 26 February 1973 vol 339 cc519-20WA
LORD O'HAGAN

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many British Protected Persons there are, and in which countries; and what responsibilities Her Majesty's Government recognise towards them.

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

There are an estimated 165,000 British Protected Persons in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate and an estimated 98,000 in Brunei. These are the last remaining territories in which the majority of the inhabitants are British Protected Persons.

There are also British Protected Persons in various parts of the world, many of whom derive their status from their connections with former dependencies, but who have not acquired the citizenship of the independent countries those territories now form. Their numbers are not large but actual statistics do not exist. Her Majesty's Government are responsible for according general Consular protection to British Protected Persons when they travel abroad.