Part 1 - Nationality
4.The provisions:
Introduce citizenship ceremonies and a citizenship pledge;
Require those who apply for naturalisation as a British citizen to have sufficient knowledge about life in the United Kingdom; allow for regulations to be made which would specify how this requirement – and the existing requirement in relation to knowledge of English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic – is to be met; extend the language requirement to those applying for naturalisation as the spouse of a British citizen or a British overseas territories citizen;
Amend the grounds for deprivation of citizenship, and replace the existing procedure for reviewing the deprivation decision with a new right of appeal against deprivation;
Remove existing provisions which allow discrimination on the grounds of nationality or ethnic or national origin in the exercise of nationality functions;
Remove the present distinctions in nationality law between legitimate and illegitimate children;
Repeal both the present statutory exemptions from the duty to give reasons for nationality decisions and the provisions which restrict the court’s ability to review certain decisions. Other nationality provisions which are now spent are also repealed;
Remove the minimum age requirement for applications for registration as a British citizen or a British overseas territories citizen by stateless children born in the United Kingdom and the British overseas territories;
Clarify the meaning of the expression “in the United Kingdom in breach of the immigration laws”, where it occurs in the BNA 1981;
Enable men as well as women who renounced British nationality before 1983, and who now wish to re-gain it, to rely on a marital connection with the United Kingdom or a British overseas territory;
Enable regulation of the procedure for applying for a certificate of entitlement to the right of abode in the United Kingdom;
Confer an entitlement to registration as a British citizen on certain British Overseas citizens, British subjects and British protected persons; and
Confer a similar entitlement on certain persons who, but for gender discrimination in the law in force before 1 January 1983, would have acquired British citizenship automatically on that date.
