Registration as a British Citizen

HL Deb 09 April 2003 vol 647 cc39-40WA

Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What steps they will take to regularise the position of persons who, after 30 April, are enabled to be registered as British citizens under Section 13 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 but who had been previously registered as British citizens as a result of administrative error. [HL2395]

Lord Filkin

There is no need to regularise the position of people who have been registered as British citizens as a result of administrative error. Subject to voluntary renunciation or, where there are grounds for this, deprivation of citizenship, such people will continue to be British citizens.

A person who is not a British citizen but who is issued, in error, with a passport describing him as such does not thereby become a British citizen. From 30 April anybody in this position who meets the requirements for registration under Section 4C of the British Nationality Act 1981, as inserted by Section 13 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, will be entitled to registration as a British citizen.