Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia. I recognise that he is speaking on behalf of his noble friend, who is not able to be with us today. I look forward very much to hearing his noble friend’s comments about services at Heathrow Airport on his return—perhaps I will have a chance to talk to him on those issues before our next stage, if he has anything to report to me. I apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia. I do not recall having seen the letter, although I do not for one moment suggest that his noble friend did not send it to me. I am grateful to him for having read out the appropriate part of it. He is quite right to raise this important issue. I thought that it might just be worth recapping briefly the purpose of Section 9 of the 2002 Act. As the noble Lord said, we are seeking to remove the present distinctions in nationality law between legitimate and illegitimate children, by redefining ““father”” as either the husband of the woman who gave birth to the child, a person who is treated as a father by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, or a person who satisfies the requirements of regulations to be made under the British Nationality Act 1981 as to proof of paternity. The thrust of what the noble Lord has sought to do with the amendment is to challenge the Government on not having brought forward the regulations as quickly as we might have. I will not go into the essence of the amendment, because I understand precisely what the noble Lord is seeking to do. I am not in a position—I wish I were—to give the noble Lord or the Committee precise details of when the regulations will come forward. However, I completely accept—as a Minister who has done a lot of work around children’s issues, as the noble Lord was kind enough to point out—the importance of doing this. I am seeing my honourable friend Mr. McNulty in the early part of next week. I undertake that, as soon as I have done so, I will talk to the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, and write formally to him, so that the Committee will have sight of what I say on what precisely the Government’s plans are. If I can give specific times and dates, I will ensure that in some way or another I can put that into Hansard so that it has the clarity of having been said before Parliament. At this stage, the question is, I think, merely to do with pressure of time. However, I accept that, as the noble Lord rightly said, this is an important area which we need to resolve. I apologise that I cannot do so today.