Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether BN(O) citizens who have arrived from Hong Kong are required to become British citizens before they can register to vote in a UK general election.

British Nationals Overseas (BN(O)s) who have arrived from Hong Kong are not required to become British Citizens in order to register to vote in UK general elections.

Although BN(O)s are not classed as British citizens, the British Nationality Act 1981 determines that they have the status of Commonwealth citizens. This means that Hong Kong BN(O)s, with leave to enter or remain in the UK, are entitled to register to vote as an elector in UK parliamentary elections, providing they fulfil the age and residence requirements for such registration and are not subject to any other legal incapacity.