Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Chaggosians with family in the UK will be eligible for UK citizenship under the new discretionary adult registration route.

This proposed adult registration clause in the Nationality and Borders Bill would allow the Home Secretary discretion to grant citizenship in circumstances where a person could have become British but for historical legislative unfairness, an act or omission by a public authority, or exceptional circumstances of the particular individual.

This is one of a number of measures which need to be approved by Parliament, and so we cannot be specific at this time how the discretion will be used.