Policy paper

British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2019

A Remedial Order to remove the good character requirement for certain applications for British citizenship and address the incompatibility with the Human Rights Act 1998.

• From: Home Office
• Published: 15 March 2018
• Last updated: 24 December 2021 — See all updates

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Documents

Government response to the fifth report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Session 2017-19: proposal for a draft British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2018 - January 2019 (accessible version)

HTML

Government response to the fifth report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Session 2017-19: proposal for a draft British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2018 - January 2019

Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-0963-0 , CCS0119338728 01/19

PDF, 461 KB, 22 pages

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Government response to the fifth report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Session 2017-19: proposal for a draft British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2018 - January 2019 (print)

Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-0963-0, CCS0119338728 01/19

PDF, 1.59 MB, 28 pages

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Incompatibility under the Human Rights Act 1998: a remedial order to amend the good character requirement at section 41A(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981

Ref: ISBN 9781528602532, CCS0318203178 03/18

PDF, 3.01 MB, 17 pages

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Incompatibility under the Human Rights Act 1998: a remedial order to amend the good character requirement at section 41A(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 (print)

Ref: ISBN 9781528602532, CCS0318203178 03/18

PDF, 1.39 MB, 20 pages

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Details

On 25 July 2019, the British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2019 came into force.

The Remedial Order removes the good character requirement for British citizenship in the following applications for registration:

• section 4F of the British Nationality Act 1981 on the basis the person would be entitled to register under paragraph 4 or 5 of Schedule 2
• sections 4C, 4G, 4H and 4I of the British Nationality Act 1981

These changes follow the incompatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) identified by the UK courts in relation to various categories of people who would automatically have become British citizens had their parents been married to one another at the time of their birth or had their father been British rather than their mother.

Published 15 March 2018
Last updated 24 December 2021 + show all updates

1. 24 December 2021

   Accessible HTML version of 'Government response to the fifth report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Session 2017-19: proposal for a draft British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2018 - January 2019' added.

2. 9 January 2020

   Updated the relevant application types affected by this order.

3. 1 August 2019

   Updated to reference the British Nationality Act 1981 (Remedial) Order 2019 coming into force.

4. 14 January 2019

   New government response to the 5th report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Session 2017-19 (HC 926, HL paper 146 - January 2019.

5. 15 March 2018

   First published.