Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government's policy is on removing British protected person status where to do so would result in a person becoming stateless.

The UK is a signatory to the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The principle of that Convention is that statelessness should be avoided. It seeks to prevent statelessness by prohibiting the withdrawal of citizenship from the nationals of a state when doing so would result in them becoming stateless. British nationality legislation reflects this position and therefore only makes provision for British Protected Person status to be lost automatically where a person has another nationality. It can also be removed where deprivation of citizenship would be conducive to the public good and the individual would not become stateless as a result, or if the person had obtained the status through deception.