Citizenship (Armed Forces) Bill
About these Parliamentary proceedings
Reference
567 cc1279-1332 Session
2013-14Legislative stage
Second readingChamber / Committee
House of Commons chamberRelated items
Proceeding contributions
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
The Bill is brief and to the point—...
I have been trying to understand the Bill. Is the key moment the precise moment at the end of the...
Show all contributions (166)
The key point is that under the 1981 Act a foreigner or Commonwealth citizen applying for natural...
I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing this important Bill before the House. Does he know how ...
It is indeed an anomaly. Currently, more than 9,000 foreign and Commonwealth persons are serving ...
My hon. Friend refers, rightly, to the sense of discrimination that some members of our armed for...
I am reminded by people with much more experience in the House than I have that it is unwise to a...
As I understand it, the Government said in the Queen’s Speech that they would introduce an immigr...
The key point is that the Bill would remedy a simple problem. I know, from having talked to the M...
I congratulate my hon. Friend on introducing the Bill, as it covers an issue that we should clear...
I am pleased to say that most of the major Army charities, which do such wonderful work supportin...
I am sorry to return to my earlier intervention, but if this change is supported by the Governmen...
I think I answered that point clearly before. I am very happy with the narrow definition of the B...
I hope that the Bill will make progress, but can my hon. Friend make it clear that when we are ta...
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. That is absolutely the case. It is my understanding that ...
My hon. Friend says that an immigration Bill is a matter for the Government, but it seems, by the...
My hon. Friend makes a fair point—the Bill has the complete support of the Government. It is also...
I congratulate my hon. Friend on introducing the Bill. Can he reassure me that the Government sup...
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s speech, but he is...
My hon. Friend is making a powerful case. I am gratified that a number of military charities clea...
I am not aware that any charities, military or otherwise, are against the Bill. I am sure that if...
Will the Bill have retrospective effect?
The Bill will apply to cases from now on. By definition, those applying for citizenship under the...
Just to clarify, where an individual has fallen foul of the anomaly under the 1981 Act and has su...
The Bill gives the Secretary of State more discretion than he has had hitherto, but we are trying...
My hon. Friend rightly refers to the brave men and women in our armed forces in his constituency ...
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is not just the citizens of this country who owe our ...
This is an interesting anecdote. I am proud to have participated in the armed forces parliamentar...
Order. The personal experience of the hon. Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin) is u...
I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker. I am interested to hear of my hon. Friend’s experiences I was t...
My hon. Friend has spoken powerfully about the sacrifices that our armed forces make and the way ...
I thank my hon. Friend for that point, which she makes extremely well. The armed forces are at th...
My hon. Friend is being very generous in giving way. He is right to stress the dedication, excell...
My hon. Friend makes an excellent and important point.
I have invited the troops stationed ...
Will my hon. Friend explain the ambit of the term “armed forces”? Will it, for example, cover the...
It is my understanding that all those serving in the armed forces will come under the aegis of th...
Will my hon. Friend clarify whether the Bill will cover members of the Army Reserve?
My understanding is that it would cover such people, but I look to the Minister to give us a litt...
Will my hon. Friend clarify what will happen when the Bill has become an Act? Someone will have t...
At that point, the person would follow the normal naturalisation process for citizenship. The key...
I presume, though, that once they have done their five years and applied for naturalisation, they...
I have a large amount of notes relating to the naturalisation process and all the disqualificatio...
The key point is that time spent overseas has placed people at a disadvantage. The new legislatio...
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing us back to the key point of the Bill with a good loc...
I should like to assist the House on the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborou...
We look forward to hearing the Minister later.
I am sorry to bring my hon. Friend back to the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Gain...
I hesitate to use up all our available time discussing the regulations. As I have said, I have no...
Is it not significant that when someone applying for naturalisation has not previously fallen fou...
I largely accept that point. The important thing is to ensure that our armed services personnel a...
I think my hon. Friend is being too modest. Although the changes are narrow in scope and in terms...
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention, with which I of course agree abs...
Following what my hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Margot James) said, does my hon. Friend...
Yes, absolutely. The regiment, the battalion and the way in which our armed forces tend to be arr...
The terrible shock to which my hon. Friend refers is presumably exacerbated when someone who was ...
I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. That is the key point to which this House needs to ad...
My hon. Friend describes a situation in which it seems as if almost everybody in the Welsh Guards...
My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. There are more than 9,000 foreign and Commonwealth per...
My hon. Friend has covered the point I intended to make, but does he agree that, during the secon...
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that excellent point. I entirely agree about the contribution...
Will my hon. Friend clarify the territorial extent of the legislation, which the Bill refers to a...
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that query. I can confirm that those are the places w...
My hon. Friend is making a powerful case for the Bill. On a narrow point, will he confirm that th...
Yes, that is essentially the case, although I hope that when the Home Office or immigration offic...
In the same spirit of looking kindly at such circumstances, does my hon. Friend not feel that whe...
I feel sure that that will indeed be the case.
The Bill will also cover members and former ...
If my hon. Friend will forgive me for returning to the issue I raised earlier on the British over...
I am happy to tell my hon. Friend that they would indeed be included, and I am grateful to her fo...
Is this not all part of what the armed forces covenant is about? It is about a situation existing...
That is the clear thrust of the Bill and the debate today. I hope that all Members listening will...
May I say what a pleasure it is to speak on this calm Friday morning, and what a pleasurable expe...
My hon. Friend is a learned and long-established Member of Parliament. I wonder whether he will a...
The short answer is that I do not know, but the Minister is sitting here, and no doubt he does kn...
Is there not a distinction between the total number of overseas personnel in the armed forces and...
Of course. That is an obvious point.
I should like to hear a bit more from the Minister abo...
I appreciate entirely the point my hon. Friend is making, but the implementation of the armed for...
Of course. We all know that the task facing the Minister is extremely difficult and it is better ...
I give way to my hon. Friend, who is an expert.
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and for his very gracious and, if I may say so, rather perc...
On Friday mornings, Members of Parliament naturally have many other things to do in their constit...
As my hon. Friend was in the House when the 1981 Act was passed, can he remember the territorial ...
You, Mr Speaker, must have immediately spotted this: I am sorry, but I misspoke as my hon. Friend...
Is not the implication of this that somebody who has not set foot in this country for five years ...
The Bill’s promoter is unavoidably absent from the Chamber for a few moments, but he will have to...
Order. This is exceptionally cheeky on the part of the hon. Gentleman, and I feel sure, given the...
I know I was being cheeky, Mr Speaker, but I could not resist the opportunity to try to expound o...
Will my hon. Friend comment on the concern, which I certainly have, that one of the perverse cons...
As is often the case, my hon. Friend makes an intervention that just needs to be answered; we do ...
Does my hon. Friend think it would be appropriate, when targeting net migration into this country...
That is a good point, and I think I may end on it, as it allows me to sum up what I have been try...
I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Jonathan Lord) on introducing this exc...
On the 300th anniversary of the treaty of Utrecht, my hon. Friend has mentioned Gibraltar. She ma...
The question is whether those troops settled in Gibraltar and what the rules were for their natur...
Shall I? In that case, here is another one.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her support for the Bill. I was pleased to support her in her...
Order. May I say to the hon. Lady that whatever the insatiable appetite that might or might not e...
The enthusiasm and the accuracy with which I welcome the Bill are such that I want to hear confir...
Does my hon. Friend think that battles that were important to our nation’s past and influenced us...
My hon. Friend gives an excellent example of why he is so well-placed to introduce the Bill. It d...
This is all rather absurd. Can one imagine such a situation when the Emperor Claudius allowed Rom...
Perhaps I am about to introduce a note of dissent into our discussions this morning. I think that...
Order. I think that the point that the test that the Government envisage is in the hon. Lady’s mi...
Mr Speaker, I shall have that speech of yours printed and engraved. It is so eloquent that I can ...
May I draw my hon. Friend back to the Bill? Surely the point is that this country, whose virtues ...
My understanding is that he would have had to have been resident in the territories outlined in t...
I am not sure how many Fijians in our armed forces are fluent in Scottish Gaelic, but I suspect n...
I am proud to say that my grandmother spoke Scottish Gaelic fluently.
Was she Fijian?
No. As a girl, I learned to say, “An t-Eilean Muileach, an t-eilean àghmhor”, which means, “The I...
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin), ...
I endorse entirely my hon. Friend’s comments, but I would go one step further. Although there may...
I thank my hon. Friend for making that extremely important point. We have the annual report on th...
I thank my hon. Friend very much indeed for his strong support for the Bill, and for serving in C...
As I intimated earlier, I have never been a member of the armed forces, but I am acutely aware of...
I am very grateful for my hon. Friend’s strong support and excellent speech, but can he help me? ...
I would be delighted to serve on the Public Bill Committee, subject to my availability—[Laughter....
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Central Devon (Mel Stride) and to reinfo...
My hon. Friend speaks well about the beneficial effects of the armed forces covenant and how the ...
I have met many serving or retired members of our armed forces—I work with the Royal British Legi...
The Bill is about two of the most important issues that we in the House of Commons debate—namely,...
My hon. Friend makes a powerful case for the Bill. Is it not just as significant that, as far as ...
That is the case. We need to recognise that there is a rich tradition of this country working wit...
I congratulate the hon. Member for Woking (Jonathan Lord) on bringing this important issue before...
I am delighted that the hon. Lady is alone in the Chamber in being able to answer that question s...
I will admit that I did.
To return to the subject of the Bill, I want to pay tribute to our...
It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker. I had prepared only a brief...
What does “settlement” mean? Say someone is married to a member of the armed forces and has been ...
The rules operate differently for the spouse. When serving, the service person is not subject to ...
My hon. Friend might be going on to say this, but there is already a provision on the statute boo...
My hon. Friend appears to be working seamlessly in tandem with me, because if I turn over the pag...
I thank the Minister for giving way and for beginning to answer some of the questions that I rais...
The question is not so much where the person physically is when they apply, but what their intent...
I know that I am being obtuse, but I do not understand what the purpose is, then, of having all t...
I would never accuse my hon. Friend of being obtuse. She and I had a great exchange on her previo...
What I am really trying to clarify is that language acquisition takes place in a specific part of...
The Secretary of State has the ability to waive the requirement if someone’s physical or mental c...
Is the Minister saying that although the pass mark for both tests has remained at 75%, about 75% ...
My hon. Friend is spot on.
I have now been inspired so let me answer my hon. Friend’s quest...
I had hoped that that was a good explanation.
I thank the Minister for his excellent explanation. It answers the question I asked my hon. Frien...
I heard my hon. Friend ask that question of my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough and I thin...
I raised the issue of retrospection. As a result of the retrospective nature of the Bill, how man...
It is difficult to be precise, because we do not know how many foreign and commonwealth members o...
As it is my hon. Friend’s Bill, I will take his intervention first before listening to the respon...
Perhaps my intervention will pre-empt a further one. My hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (...
It is helpful. Before I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch, it is worth sayin...
My concern was about eligibility: I did not ask how many people would take advantage of the Bill....
The difficulty with answering that question is that, technically, everyone who is a foreign or Co...
Order. I would just say to the Minister that of course the covenant provides important context, b...
I am conscious of that, Madam Deputy Speaker. I do not have a lengthy list. It is a short list an...
I think the Minister is nearing the end of his remarks, but before he does, can he address my que...
Without tempting Madam Deputy Speaker to chastise me, what I would say is that if my hon. Friend ...
Order. I am rather surprised to see the hon. Gentleman standing. He has not been in the Chamber f...
If you are inviting me to comment on what you just said—
I am not inviting you, Mr Chope. My question was rhetorical in its nature. I am nudging you gentl...
I did speak to you in your position in the Chair to indicate that I would seek to catch your eye ...
Indeed, and I am sure that you would not wish any discourtesy to me as the occupant of the Chair ...
I feel a heavy weight on my shoulders, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am grateful for your indulgence.
I saw the Minister nodding vigorously as my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) wa...