As we build on our proud record of helping those in need from around the world, it is right that we take this opportunity to correct historical anomalies which have existed for too long at home in British Nationality law. British Nationality Law has not changed significantly since 1983, and some of the provisions are now outdated. The reforms we will make to British Nationality law will finally address historical anomalies, which will impact hundreds of people annually, including:
Introducing new registration provisions for children of British Overseas Territories Citizen (BOTC) to acquire citizenship more easily;
Fixing the injustice which prevents a child from acquiring their father’s citizenship if their mother was married to someone else;
Introducing a new discretionary adult registration route to give the Home Secretary an ability to grant citizenship in compelling and exceptional circumstances where there has been historical unfairness beyond a person’s control;
Creating further flexibility to waive residence requirements for naturalisation in exceptional cases. This will mean Windrush victims are not prevented from qualifying for British Citizenship because they were not able to return to the UK to meet the residence requirements through no fault of their own.
Ending Anomalies in British Nationality Provisions Until 1 January 1983, women could not pass on British nationality to a child born outside the UK and its then territories. Similarly, until 1 July 2006, children born to British unmarried fathers could not acquire British nationality through their father. While new registration provisions were introduced to rectify these issues for British citizens, they were not applied to children of British Overseas Territories Citizens. This is an injustice so we will now right this wrong and create new registration routes for the affected children of British Overseas Territory Citizens to acquire both British Overseas Territory and British Citizenship. We will make necessary changes in law so that children entitled to British Citizenship through their biological father (while their mother was married to someone else at the time of their birth) have an entitlement to register for British citizenship, rather than simply relying on a discretionary route to do so. To help address other cases which seem unjust but do not meet all necessary criteria, we will introduce a new discretionary adult registration route (which already exists for children) so that the Home Secretary can grant citizenship in compelling cases, which would otherwise result in an unfair outcome. We will also introduce further flexibility to waive residence requirements for naturalisation in exceptional cases. This will help individuals, including members of the Windrush Generation (who were not able to meet the residence requirements to qualify for British Citizenship through no fault of their own), to obtain British citizenship more quickly. We will also take the opportunity to close a nationality provision loophole which was intended to help those who are genuinely stateless. Under current nationality law a child can acquire British Citizenship under statelessness provisions where they were born in the UK, have lived here for 5 years and have never had another nationality. Recently we have seen an increasing number of parents choosing not to register their child by their own nationality despite being able to do so. In 2015, 10 statelessness applications were received, but this has now grown to over 1,000 per year. We will now stop this route from being abused by tightening the requirements and actions parents are required to follow before their children are able to benefit from statelessness provisions. It is right that genuinely stateless children who were born in the UK should be able to acquire British Citizenship, but it cannot be right that others can abuse the system and purposefully not register their children in their own nationality.[footnote 10] Nationality Anomalies: case studies A person who was born outside of the UK and Overseas Territories had a non-British father and a mother born in a British overseas territory pre-1983. When the individual was born, women were unable to pass on citizenship to their children, meaning that the individual did not automatically become a British Overseas Territories citizen or British citizen. In another case, a person was born outside of the UK and overseas territories before 2006. The person’s mother was not British; their father was born in a British overseas territory. The parents were not married. Had the mother been married to the father at the time of the person’s birth, then that individual would have become a British Overseas Territories citizen and British citizen. The intended reforms would help to resolve inconsistencies in the UK’s Nationality laws, and the impact of this on families.