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A handful of UK laws around British citizenship and immigration restrictions could soon apply in Jersey, if proposals by the Chief Minister are approved by politicians.
In some ways a formality, Deputy Lyndon Farnham is requesting that States Members consent to the extension of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, British Nationality Act 2023 and British Citizenship Act 2024, as well as some other pieces of historic British nationality legislation.
These laws are most likely to impact people living in Jersey who are migrants or refugees – but, as the report accompanying the proposition states, those effects will be positive.
Pictured: Deputy Farnham is requesting the consent of the States Assembly to extend UK laws to the island, as he must do according to Jersey legislation.
For those seeking to apply for citizenship, their rights would be enhanced, certain restrictions would be waived in particular situations, with historical anomalies corrected.
The British Nationality Act 1981, which sets out how a person can become a British citizen, already applies to Jersey and other Crown Dependencies.
Approving the extension of these other nationality laws in the States Assembly this October, and then adopting the laws in the Royal Court, would allow Jersey to remain aligned with the UK on these issues.
"Constitutionally, it is appropriate that matters of nationality and British Citizenship are determined in Jersey in the same way as in the United Kingdom," the Chief Minister said in the report.
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which became UK law on 28 April 2022, contains provisions about nationality, asylum and immigration which are relevant to Jersey because it is a Crown Dependency and it is in the Common Travel Area.
It was the cornerstone of the Conservative government's 'New Plan' for immigration and focuses on penalising refugees who travel to the UK through 'irregular' means.
Part 1, which is relevant to Jersey, sets out some altered criteria for becoming a British overseas territories citizen, powers of the Secretary of State relating to citizenship, and the registration of stateless minors.
The British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Act 2023 is less wide-ranging and tackles a very specific historical anomaly. This Act makes a change to the British Nationality Act (BNA) 1981 to clarify the status of people born in the UK to EU, EEA and Swiss nationals between specified dates.
Under the BNA 1981, an individual born in the UK is a British citizen automatically from birth where one of their parents is British or settled here. Between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000, EU, EEA and Swiss nationals were considered settled if they were living in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and exercising a free movement right there.
The British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Act 2023 confirms this position in law, and it therefore protects the nationality rights of people born in the UK to a parent who was considered settled on the basis of exercising a free movement right, and those who registered or naturalised as British citizens on the basis of that policy.
The change does not create 'new' British citizens, but protects the citizenship of individuals who were long considered British already under established Home Office policy.
The British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 makes the provision for Irish citizens who have been resident in the United Kingdom for five years to be entitled to British citizenship. The route to gaining that citizenship will be similar to the existing route for British nationals under the BNA 1981.
Deputy Farnham refers to the extension of a number of other historic laws as a case of "housekeeping".
Listed below, the remaining legislation that States Members will be asked to approve have all been brought into effect in the UK over the years, amending the BNA 1981 in their own ways – but these have not explicitly been approved for Jersey.
The report said: "These historic provisions are included as part of a tidying-up exercise to ensure that Jersey's legislation is aligned with the UK in respect of nationality and are included in this proposition for completeness."
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