Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure children born in the UK or brought to the UK as children, particularly those in care, are not entering adulthood without their UK citizenship registered.

The Public Protection Specialist Safeguarding Team (formerly the Citizenship Vulnerable Person Team) has worked with local authorities since June 2022 to promote awareness of citizenship options for children in care. It has proactively engaged with every local authority to help ensure they understand the full range of British citizenship registration routes available to children for whom they are responsible and to support them in making applications.

On 8 April, the fee to register a child as a British citizen was reduced from £1,214 to £1,000. The fee can be waived for those unable to afford it and does not apply to children looked after by a local authority.

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 introduced section 4L of the British Nationality Act 1981, which allows adults to be registered as British citizens where they would have been, or would have been able to become, a British citizen but for historical legislative unfairness, an act or omission of a public authority, or exceptional circumstances relating to the applicant. While not limited to such cases, the provision provides a route for adults who were raised in care and who may have missed a time-limited opportunity to register as British citizens because the necessary action was not taken on their behalf.