Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals have been granted British overseas territories citizenship in each of the past five years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not currently publish this data, due to ongoing developments with the underlying data systems. Historic data up to 2018 can be found in Table Cit_03 in the citizenship summary tables.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer of Lord Murray of Blidworth on 28 June (HL8499), why long delays are occurring for the delivery of BOTC (F) and BOTC (M) registration certificates to the British High Commissions located in the Caribbean region.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We aim to decide all straight-forward applications within the six-month service standard. After a decision is made, the certificate is securely sent to the overseas post via the diplomatic bag through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Delivery times can vary depending on when the next bag is dispatched, which ranges from weekly to fortnightly depending on the destination. These bags can be tracked by the Home Office if details of dispatch date and destination are provided to FCDO.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why many applicants on the BIOT (Chagossian) citizenship registration route must wait longer than the six-month target to receive approval notifications, ceremonies and certificates at the High Commission in Port Louis; why the first people who have been approved under the Chagossian route since March 2023 are past the 12-week wait for an invitation to attend their British Overseas Territory Citizenship and British Citizenship ceremony, including where their certificates have already been sent by post; and why it is not possible to track applications.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We aim to decide all straight-forward applications within the six-month service standard. After a decision is made, the certificate is securely sent to the overseas post via the diplomatic bag through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Delivery times can vary depending on when the next bag is dispatched, which ranges from weekly to fortnightly depending on the destination. These bags can be tracked by the Home Office if details of dispatch date and destination are provided to FCDO.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 28 June (HL8499), whether the forthcoming amendment to the British Nationality (Overseas Territories) Regulations 2007 will delay active UK-based BIOT (Chagossian) approved applicants from proceeding with their ceremonies in the UK; and if so, whether the right to waive on a case-by-case basis will be extended to the local authority registrars administering that part of the oath.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We do not anticipate that the forthcoming amendment to the British Nationality (Overseas Territories) Regulations 2007 will delay Chagossians in the UK from proceeding to attend their citizenship ceremony in the UK. The power to waive elements of a citizenship ceremony in the UK is exercised by the Home Office, on behalf of the Secretary of State, on a case by case basis. There are no plans to amend the British Nationality Act 1981 to allow local authority registrars to waive citizenship ceremony requirements.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will amend the residency requirement for the Skills Bootcamp programme so that newly arrived citizens from the British overseas territories under the BOTC (F), BOTC (M), and the BIOT (Chagossian) routes can take advantage of the programme to help them settle into employment in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Adults are eligible to apply for a Skills Bootcamp if they are aged 19 or over, have the right to work in the UK, live in England and meet residency requirements.
Skills Bootcamps follow the same residency eligibility criteria as other funding streams for further education for adults aged 19+, including the Adult Education Budget. The government has to prioritise which learners to support within the finite resources available.
Learners who have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least the previous three years on the first day of learning are eligible for funding, irrespective of citizenship or nationality. Eligibility also extends to those with a right of abode in the UK, who have been residing in British Overseas Territories for at least the previous three years on the first day of learning.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the reasons for delays in scheduling citizenship ceremonies and issuing certificates to British Overseas Territories citizens approved for British citizenship under the BOTC(F) process.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
For applicants in the UK, we are amending the British Nationality (Overseas Territories) Regulations 2007 so that registrars in the UK can administer the oath and pledge for British overseas territories citizenship. In the interim, Governors of overseas territories can waive the need for a citizenship ceremony on a case by case basis. We will shortly be holding citizenship ceremonies where applicants can receive both certificates.
For applications made outside the UK, Governors and FCDO staff are permitted to conduct ceremonies for both British overseas territories citizenship and British citizenship. Customers in these territories, which represent the majority of cases, are unaffected.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many holders of British Overseas Territories passports have been denied entry to the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on numbers of persons initially stopped at the border in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on persons initially stopped, by nationality, are published in table Stp_D01 of the ‘Passengers initially stopped at the border detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the end of September 2022.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many nationals of British Overseas Territories have been refused entry to the United Kingdom in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes numbers of people refused entry at UK ports, who subsequently departed (“port returns”) in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. The latest data are to the end of June 2022.
A breakdown of port returns by nationality for different periods is given in table Ret_D01 of the accompanying detailed returns data tables. Please note that most of the British Overseas Territories nationalities have been grouped into one nationality group “British Overseas Citizens”. Others which appear more commonly in the figures, such as Bermuda, are shown separately.
Port returns include people who are refused entry and are returned, so are therefore not a count of all people refused entry.
Further information about how to use this data is available in the ‘About the statistics’ section and the user guide.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which sections of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 that allow the Secretary of State to make regulations (1) have, and (2) have not, been used to make such regulations.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (“the Act”) achieved Royal Assent on 28th April 2022.
The provisions set out in section 87(3) and (4) of the Act came into force immediately upon Royal Assent. The provisions set out in section 87(5) of the Act came into force on 28th June 2022. The provisions listed in Schedule 1 of the Act (Commencement No. 1, Transitional and Saving Provisions) came into force on 28th June 2022 and the provisions listed in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2022 came into force on 24th August 2022.
Implementation of the Act to date has been through the following pieces of secondary legislation:
There have also been changes to the Immigration Rules made during 2022 in relation to the implementation of the Act.
The remaining measures will be implemented over the coming months and into next year.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who (a) are the children of unmarried parents from the British Overseas Territories and (b) have sought to claim citizenship through their mother have had their application for British Overseas Territories citizenship rejected in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 has created registration routes for the children of British Overseas Territory citizen mothers, and those who would have become British Overseas Territories citizens had their parents been married. Those affected by historical discrimination will be able to acquire both British Overseas Territories citizenship and British citizenship, giving them the statuses they would otherwise have received automatically.
Applications for British Overseas Territories citizenship under existing routes are decided in the territories by Governors. There is currently no specific route for the children of British Overseas Territories citizen mothers, or unmarried fathers, to claim citizenship. The new routes we are introducing will allow them to apply.