My Lords, I just second what everyone else has said, in particular the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, whose Amendment 9 I have had the honour to co-sign. As he pointed out, the key element to stress here is that the imposition of a good character requirement for citizenship now would perpetuate discrimination against those who have been discriminated against in the past, when the whole—laudable—point of Part 1, which, as my noble friend Lady Hamwee pointed out, is the only good bit of the Bill, is to rectify historical injustice.
Indeed, as the Joint Committee on Human Rights believes, it could well amount to
“unlawful discrimination, contrary to Article 14 as read with Article 8 ECHR, to require a person to prove good character when remedying previous unlawful discrimination against that person.”
When applied to children, it is even more unfair and obviously against their best interests. Hence the need to delete Clause 3(4), which is the focus of Amendment 9. The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, referred to the quotation that this is “divisive, alienating” and unjust, compared to the treatment of other British citizens.
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Good character is not even defined in statute—in this case, the British Nationality Act—but only in a Home Office policy document. The courts have stipulated that Home Office decision-makers should make an overall assessment, including evidence of positive good character—which is presumably difficult in the case of
a child, certainly a small child—but, inevitably, the guidance focuses caseworkers’ minds on when to refuse on grounds of bad character. Instead of that holistic, individualised approach to assessment, there can be an inevitably negative approach.
Due to past discrimination, any conduct subsequent to 2002 could risk being a bar to obtaining British citizenship; whereas, if that person had not been discriminated against and had been allowed citizenship 20 years ago, along with others, any subsequent conduct would not have affected their British nationality. It is a double whammy of discrimination. As the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, said, the JCHR has long raised the objection that requiring good character when considering applications to resolve prior discrimination simply perpetuates the effect. It is not only unfair, especially for children, but illegal.
The committee is thus entirely consistent in urging the deletion of Clause 3(4). At the very least, I should like to hear from the Minister in her reply whether she can clarify exactly how the discrimination would be used.