Remove Clause 9 from the Nationality and Borders Bill
The Parliament petitions site records 327,103 signatures for this petition, which closed on 29 May 2022. The Government responded on 5 January 2022.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Remove Clause 9 from the Nationality and Borders Bill
Under provisions in Clause 9 of this Bill, individuals could be stripped of their British citizenship without warning. We believe this is unacceptable, and inconsistent with international human rights obligations.
Clause 9 of the bill, “Notice of decision to deprive a person of citizenship,” which was updated earlier this month, exempts the Government from having to give notice if it is not “reasonably practicable” to do so, or in the interests of national security, diplomatic relations or is otherwise in the public interest.
We believe these provisions should be removed before this Bill is enacted.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 5 January 2022; the petitions site lists the Home Office as responsible. Its summary:
The Government will not remove Clause 9. It is necessary to ensure deprivation powers can be used effectively and will only apply in very limited circumstances. It does not affect the right to appeal.
The opening 343 words of the 517-word response:
Clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill removes the requirement to give notice of a decision to deprive a person of citizenship in certain limited circumstances. The clause also has retrospective effect so that where a decision to deprive has already been made but not notified to the person, the deprivation order stemming from that decision remains valid. This provision strikes the right balance between the rights of the individual and the aims of the policy to keep the public safe.
The Government recognises that to deprive someone of British citizenship is a very serious matter and it is a power reserved for those whose conduct poses a threat to the UK, involves very high harm, or where citizenship has been obtained by fraudulent means and so the person was never entitled to it in the first place. Deprivation on ‘conducive to the public good’ grounds is rare, has been possible for over a century, comes with a right of appeal and is used against people like terrorists to keep the public safe. Such decisions are therefore made following careful consideration of advice from officials and lawyers and in accordance with domestic and international law as well as the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Clause 9 doesn’t change any of that. It is simply about how someone is notified. It cannot be right that the proper functioning of the immigration and nationality system is impeded because an individual has removed themselves from contact with the Home Office, or they are in a war zone where they cannot be contacted, or where to make contact would disclose sensitive intelligence sources.
This clause is therefore necessary to avoid the situation where we could never deprive a person of their British citizenship just because it is not practicable, or not possible, to communicate with them. Preserving the ability to make decisions in this way is vitally important to preserve the integrity of the UK immigration system and to protect the security of the UK from those who would wish to do us harm.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 3,454, came from Bethnal Green and Bow.
323,610 of the signatures were from the UK and 3,493 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Bethnal Green and Bow | 3,454 |
| Poplar and Limehouse | 2,917 |
| Ilford South | 2,853 |
| Hackney North and Stoke Newington | 2,774 |
| West Ham | 2,729 |
| Lewisham, Deptford | 2,641 |
| Hackney South and Shoreditch | 2,546 |
| Camberwell and Peckham | 2,509 |
| East Ham | 2,490 |
| Croydon North | 2,392 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| London | 107,844 |
| South East | 37,214 |
| West Midlands | 30,180 |
| North West | 27,666 |
| East of England | 23,846 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 21,987 |
| South West | 17,760 |
| Scotland | 16,739 |
| East Midlands | 15,941 |
| Wales | 8,358 |
| North East | 5,911 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,395 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on .
The Petitions Committee's summary of the debate:
The Petitions Committee has decided not to schedule a debate on this petition.
The Committee recognised the support that this petition has received. However, the request of this petition has already been considered by MPs through the legislative process.
Follow progress of the Nationality and Borders Bill: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3023
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/601583.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
71f5128e8369da7c… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.