British Nationality and Deportation

(asked on 5th January 2026) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of British citizens born (a) in the UK and (b) abroad who have been deported after their citizenship was revoked in each of the last 5 years.


Answered by
Mike Tapp Portrait
Mike Tapp
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This question was answered on 8th January 2026

The British Nationality Act 1981 provides the Secretary of State with the power to deprive an individual of their British citizenship where:

  • The Secretary of State is satisfied that it would be conducive to the public good;
  • The person acquired citizenship as a result of fraud, false representations or concealment of a material fact

The Government considers that deprivation on ‘conducive grounds’ is an appropriate response to activities such as those involving:

  • National security, including espionage and acts of terrorism directed at this country or an allied power;
  • Unacceptable behaviour of the kind mentioned in the then Home Secretary’s statement of 24 August 2005 (‘glorification’ of terrorism etc);
  • War crimes; and
  • Serious organised crime.

The Home Office publishes data relating to those deprived of British Citizenship on ‘conducive to the public good’ grounds. These are published in the Government Transparency Report: Disruptive and Investigatory Powers. Reports have been published up to 2024.

The figures from the previous five years of individuals who have been deprived of their British citizenship for this reason, are below:

Year

Number of individuals

2021

8

2022

3

2023

2

2024

1

2025

Not yet published

In the interest of safeguarding national security, we do not break down these figures into sub-categories.

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