As you will be aware, in order to protect this country, the Home Secretary has the power to deprive someone of their British citizenship where it would not render them stateless. This power has been in place for more than a hundred years and has been used by successive Home Secretaries.
I would like to assure you that any decision to deprive an individual of their citizenship is only used in exceptional circumstances where there is a significant threat to the public, such as from a terrorist, and based on all available evidence, including secret intelligence. Furthermore, it is never used to target people because of their ethnic or religious background and it always comes with a right of appeal. The Nationality and Borders Bill will not change that.
I fully support the ability for the Home Secretary to deprive citizenship on conducive grounds. This is of course reserved for those who pose a threat to the UK or whose conduct involves very high harm. What the Nationality and Borders Bill will do is amend the law in order to allow the deprivation of citizenship where it is not practicable to provide notice. This could be in a case where there is no way of communicating with the individual, for example if they are in a war zone.
I do, however, welcome the fact that the Government has amended the Bill to increase safeguards for those subject to a deprivation decision. It is right that these amendments will protect the rights of the individual while delivering the Government's security objectives.
