My Lords, I have put my name to both these amendments. I shall speak to Amendment 185, in my name and those of the noble Lords, Lord Alton of Liverpool and Lord Coaker, and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newnham. It follows on from the welcome remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, when she summed up at the end of Second Reading. She said, in relation to the requests about citizenship and right of abode that I had raised about these veterans of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces who were recruited and served in Hong Kong and elsewhere, that
“the Government have identified a potential solution to this issue”.
That is of course potentially welcome news.
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For the past six years or more, the Home Office, including the Home Secretary at the time and other Home Office Ministers, has been approached on numerous occasions by many Members of both Houses, including myself, on behalf of these loyal veterans, and indeed has been lobbied by some of the veterans themselves. All these veterans have taken the oath of allegiance and paid UK taxes on their pay. They were encouraged to make representations by features of the Armed Forces covenant, enacted in law a decade ago—features that seek to ensure that veterans and their families are treated fairly.
For the past six years or more, invariably the reply from the Home Office Minister at the time was that they were indeed valuable veterans of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and their case was being “actively considered”—a verbatim quote from the many replies received from Home Office Ministers. So this is not a new issue for the Home Office. Indeed, on behalf of 64 former members of the Hong Kong Military Service Corps veterans I submitted their applications to the Home Secretary with a personal letter from me two years ago, in March 2020. Regrettably, not even a single acknowledgement was offered by the Home Office.
At last, it seems that a potential solution has been identified. However, in her reply at Second Reading the Minister said it would require
“considerable work … with a view to a solution being provided before the end of this calendar year.”—[Official Report, 5/1/22; col. 668.]
That is, “with a view to” the end of 2022—hardly very convincing, given the Home Office’s track record that I have explained. Surely after having actively studied this issue for six years or more, it should not take the Government a vague 12 months to reach a decision. I feel it is reasonable to ask that a definite decision be reached a little sooner, as proposed by the amendment.
I hope that the Minister responding will not resist the amendment. That would only signal that the Home Office was yet again seeking to play this issue along
and did not value the true worth of these veterans. Surely it is long past time for these valued veterans to know the outcome and have a more precise date by which they will be informed. I hope the Minister will agree. The noble Baroness, Lady Williams, will recall that, when this issue was debated in the Armed Forces Bill last year, these veterans rightly received considerable support from all sides of your Lordships’ House; indeed, it was the MoD’s approach to the Home Office then which has sparked this movement towards a promising resolution. I commend the amendment to the Committee.