British Nationality

(asked on 11th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have had a (a) passport and (b) UK citizenship withdrawn under the Royal Prerogative in each year since 2013.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 24th February 2020

(a) The Secretary of State publishes the number of passports withdrawn under the Royal Prerogative in the annual Government Transparency Report: Disruptive and Investigatory Powers. The last Transparency Report was published in July 2018. A link to that report can be found here;

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/727961/CCS207_CCS0418538240-1_Transparency_Report_2018_Web_Accessible.pdf

(b) Citizenship is not withdrawn under the Royal Prerogative, it is the British Nationality Act 1981 that provides the Secretary of State with powers to deprive a person of citizenship status under the circumstances set out at sections 40(2) and 40(3) of the Act.

Section 40(2) allows the Secretary of State to deprive any person of British citizenship, should they deem it conducive to the public good to do so.

Section 40(3) allows the Secretary of State to deprive a person who has obtained citizenship by naturalisation or registration, where the Secretary of State is satisfied citizenship was obtained by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of material fact.

Three reports have been published to date in 2015, 2017 and 2018, which have included figures for section 40(2) deprivations. Figures from May 2010 to December 2014 are included in the 2015 report, from January to December 2015 in the 2017 report and January 2016 to December 2017 in the 2018 report. The links to these reports are below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473603/51973_Cm_9151_Transparency_Accessible.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/593668/58597_Cm_9420_Transparency_report_web.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disruptive-and-investigatory-powers-transparency-report-2018

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