Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, this amendment seeks to bring Clauses 42, 43 and 44 into effect when the Bill receives Royal Assent, leaving the rest of Part 2 until a day to be appointed by the Secretary of State. The reason for proposing this distinction is that the clauses in the amendment are about registration whereas the rest of Part 2, as its title states, is about acquisition by naturalisation. Clauses 42 and 44 deal with the rights of children born to members of the Armed Forces in the UK and abroad respectively. As a matter of fact, there seems to be an inconsistency between those two clauses, each of which has its own appointed day for coming into effect, and Clause 56(2), which provides that the whole of Part 2, including those two clauses, shall come into effect on a day to be appointed under that clause. If the intention is to bring Clauses 42 and 44 into effect on the same day as the rest of Part 2, the reference to an appointed day in each of the clauses is redundant, but if they are to come into effect on different days then they should obviously be excepted from Clause 56(2). I would be grateful for an explanation of how that inconsistency has arisen. There is another reason for wanting Clause 43 to come into effect as soon as possible. A woman who will benefit from descent through the female line, as provided for in Clause 43, may be on another route to citizenship. An example has come to my attention in the past few days. Mrs A, who is a potential beneficiary of Clause 43, was married to a British citizen, has entered the UK as a spouse and reaches the end of her two-year spousal visa on 22 June. At that point, if Clause 43 has not come into effect, she has no option but to naturalise. She and others in the same or a similar position, having waited for many years to be allowed the same rights as children born abroad to British fathers, should not have the cup dashed from their lips at the last moment. If the Minister does not wish to accept the amendment, will he explain how Mrs A and people like her can remain for a short while, without having to apply for citizenship as a spouse, so that they can indeed assert the right to citizenship that Parliament is offering them under Clause 43? I beg to move.