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Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

moved Amendment No. 58:"Page 30, line 27, leave out ““4B,””" The noble Baroness said: My Lords, as presently drafted, Clause 55 would extend the requirements for nationality applicants to satisfy the Secretary of State that they are of good character to all such applicants except those seeking to exercise an entitlement derived from the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The Government’s Amendment No. 58 would make a further exception in the cases of those seeking to register as British citizens on the basis that they are already British overseas citizens, British subjects or British protected persons and hold no other nationality or citizenship. As noble Lords will be aware, such people frequently have no right of abode in any country. In recognition of this fact, and accepting that we owe a moral obligation towards them as holders of British passports, we changed the law in 2002 to give them an entitlement to British citizenship and thus the right of abode in this country. We also consider that British overseas citizens, British subjects and British protected persons who have no other nationality or citizenship and have not recently and deliberately given up another nationality or citizenship should not in addition be required to satisfy the Secretary of State that they are of good character before they may be registered as British citizens. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to. [Amendments Nos. 59 to 65 not moved.]