Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

I do not think that I even attempted to answer the points made in relation to Amendments Nos. 71 and 72. I apologise to the noble Lord. I shall try to do that briefly. Noble Lords will recall that the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, was concerned about those who are eligible to receive nationality by registration. We are introducing a requirement that the Secretary of State must be satisfied that the applicant is of good character. That applies at present only to those who are seeking naturalisation. An exception would continue to be made in a small number of cases where, because of our obligations under the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, it would not in general be possible to refuse on character grounds. I am happy to provide the noble Lord with details of that if it would be helpful. We accept that there is a case for continuing to exempt certain people—minors; those with other forms of nationality; persons with ancestral connections—from the full rigours of the naturalisation process. That would not change. They would continue to enjoy exemption from most of the requirements, but we now think it inappropriate that those who have engaged in certain unacceptable behaviours should be able to benefit from the special arrangements. The requirement is that the Secretary of State must be satisfied that that the applicant is of good character. This is a straightforward principle and it should be applied in a straightforward way, in order to make sure that people who come here have good character. Concern has been expressed that we would extend the rule to very young children or even babies—that was raised with me yesterday. Of course, the rules would state that that would be a silly thing to do, and it would not happen. It is a straightforward requirement. It would not be burdensome or inappropriate. I know that the noble Lord would probably prefer a much higher test or to reverse it by saying that we would prevent coming to the UK only those people who had fallen foul of the higher test. But this is a simple way of ensuring that those who come to this country and are granted citizenship are of good character. This requirement would simply be a normal part of the process.