Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

In contrast, this amendment is designed to probe the Government on the different requirements for registration of the children of British citizens. The amendment would remove the requirement to have to be registered within 12 months of birth, the status of their grandparents set out in paragraph (b) and the requirements relating to their parents’ residence in the UK and absences of no more than 270 days set out in paragraph (c). This gives us an opportunity to probe why these requirements individually as well as collectively are held to be necessary. Not all British citizens realise that children born outside the UK or a qualifying territory will not be British citizens. Many people fail or have failed to register their children through lack of knowledge of the provisions. This is an equally crucial area to address when it comes to looking at the rights of children and to ensure that we have not left any of these issues unexamined. I beg to move.