Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 14th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I enter view with some hesitation after speeches by such a phalanx of Cross-Bench lawyers. I understand the reasoning behind the Bill, as set out by the Minister in introducing it. I understand, too, that it will put us on more or less the same footing as like-minded countries. Finally, I appreciate that the Bill has cross-party support.

However, I have two concerns. The first, as I have explained to the Minister—to whom I am very grateful for his letter responding to my concern—is the implications of the Bill for children, especially children born between a successful appeal and the final determination of the case. Here, I share the concerns raised by the noble Lord, Lord German, and my noble friend Lord Verdirame.

Consider a child born to a successful applicant, whether in Britain or abroad. Under the present draft Bill, the child, unless born in Britain with one parent with British citizenship, will be deprived of citizenship even though his or her parent has successfully appealed against deprivation of citizenship. If the next stage of the appeal were quick, this might be acceptable, but the gap between the successful appeal and the hearing of the Government’s counter-appeal may be five, six or seven years. During that period, the child will be deprived of all the benefits of British citizenship, and if the parent and child are abroad, the child may be in a far worse situation, subject—as we are seeing in north- east Syria, for example—to illness, separation from his or her parents, or terrorist attacks.

My second point is that the obvious way forward is to speed up the appeals process. The Minister said in his letter to me:

“Provisions already exist to enable the courts to expedite such appeals … and it remains within the judiciary’s discretion to determine the suitability of such measures”.


Indeed, but five, six or seven years is too long. I understand and fully support the independence of the judiciary, but I ask the Minister at least to give an assurance that the Government’s views of the desirability of a speeded-up appeals process will be made known to the judiciary.