§ Mr. Tebbitasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many 217W applications for naturalisation were received in 1975, 1976, 1977 and to the latest available date in 1978, respectively; how many were granted and how many
1975 1976 1977 1978 (to end of October Number of new applications received* 4,259 3,827 3,808 5,275 Number of applications granted 3,442 2,551 2,646 1,316 Number of applications refused 477 450 343 184 Reasons for refusal†— (a) Failure to meet statutory residential requirements etc. 227 191 136 67 (b) Failure to meet requirements as to character (criminal record, bankruptcy, insolvency, dubious business or other record, deception, etc.) 68 126 81 54 (c) Failure to meet language requirements 51 49 43 19 (d) Failure to meet requirements as to future residential intentions 75 112 88 41 (e) Other reasons 6 11 9 14 *Excludes applications re-opened after earlier postponement of the decision for one or two years. †An application may be refused for more than one reason. The number of people refused in any one year will therefore not necessarily agree with the total of reasons for that year.