Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential merits of extending British National (Overseas) nationality status to BN(O) visa holders' dependents residing in the United Kingdom.

Those with BN(O) status and their eligible family members can come to the UK to live, study and work in virtually any capacity, on a pathway to citizenship. The UK committed in the Joint Declaration that no person would acquire British Dependent Territories citizen (BDTC) status (the precursor to BN(O) status) on or after 1 July 1997. Therefore, there are no plans to change this mechanism.