Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the British Nationalities Act 1948 to enable citizenship to be passed down from the mother as well as the father.

Women have been able to pass on British nationality in the same way as men since 1983.

The British Nationality Act 1981 now also provides for the registration of those who would have become British citizens had women been able to pass on their citizenship in the same way as men before 1983.

We are also looking at legislative options to introduce a similar registration provision in relation to British Overseas Territory citizenship.