To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2022 to Question 105513 on British Nationality, whether the provisions referenced only apply to those who have been naturalised or to all British citizens.
Answered on
4 February 2022
We do not wish to deny a person their statutory right of appeal where we have made a decision to deprive. The proposed amendment to section 40A of the British Nationality Act 1981 preserves the right of appeal in cases where the notice of a decision to deprive has not been served. Once a person is in contact with the Home Office, they are given a copy of the deprivation decision notice. They can then seek to exercise their statutory right of appeal against the decision.
Any British citizen can be deprived of that citizenship where it is conducive to the public good, unless it would make them stateless. Those who have registered or naturalised as British can be deprived where citizenship was obtained by fraudulent means. The proposed amendment to section 40A does not seek to alter or widen the power to deprive; it merely seeks to enable decisions to be served validly where the Home Office is unable to give written notice, such as where the person concerned has travelled to a war zone.