The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Taylor of Holbeach) (Con)
My Lords, I am delighted to be here myself today to support the Bill on behalf of the Government. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Trefgarne for taking up this Bill, which was so ably steered through the Commons by my honourable friend Jonathan Lord, and to colleagues in this House for lending their support. I appreciate the support the Bill has had from Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition, as expressed so positively by the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, today.
I can give the noble Baroness some indication on numbers, although it is an imprecise science. The answer is that no separate figures are kept but, anecdotally, caseworkers estimate that they deal with approximately 200 to 300 cases per year. Only a small proportion of those will directly benefit from the provision in the Bill. If I can give any more precise figures I will do so in writing, but that is the situation at present.
This is one of those measures that does not affect a great many people, but those whom it does affect, it affects greatly, so we are right to support it in this House. I have discussed with the noble Baroness the matter of service overseas being interrupted by injury or disability. I have provided my noble friend Lord Trefgarne with a briefing note, as it is his Bill and I felt it appropriate that he should be able to answer that particular aspect.
The Bill is likely to have a considerable impact on the people at whom it is directed, as my noble friend—and fellow Lincolnshire yellowbelly—Lord Cormack pointed out. He gave a graphic description of how lives are affected by those who give service to this country overseas and how the whole point of the Bill is to safeguard their interest in questions of nationality. Once implemented, it will enable us to overlook the requirement to be in the UK on day 1 of the qualifying period for naturalisation, in the same way as we already overlook the requirement to have spent a certain number of days in the UK where the absence was a result of service in our Armed Forces. It is an unintended and unjust consequence of existing legislation that a member of our Armed Forces should have to wait longer to gain British citizenship just because he or she happened to have been posted overseas at the relevant time.
I am sure that my noble friend Lord Trefgarne will appreciate the support of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Wakefield, who rightly connected this measure to the Government’s commitment to the Armed Forces covenant. The measure is recognised as a priority commitment under the covenant, which the Home Office takes seriously. The service welfare organisations have both supported and challenged the Home Office throughout its delivery of this and other covenant commitments, and we will continue to work with them for the benefit of the Armed Forces community. The Government wish the Bill well.