Deprivation of Citizenship

Section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981 sets out two distinct routes to deprivation, and Home Office caseworker guidance explains how each is applied in practice. Under the 'conducive to the public good' route, the guidance states that ''Conducive to the public good' means that it is in the public interest to deprive a person of British citizenship because of their conduct and / or the threat they pose to the UK', giving examples including national security, serious organised crime, and war crimes or crimes against humanity - though the list is expressly non-exhaustive. A decision on this ground can only be made personally by the Home Secretary. The second route, under s.40(3), applies where citizenship was acquired by registration or naturalisation obtained by fraud, false representation, or concealment of a material fact; a separate provision, s.40(6), covers similar fraud-based cases from before 1 January 1983.

The statelessness safeguard is central to how the conducive-to-the-public-good power operates. The Act itself provides that the Secretary of State 'may not make an order under subsection (2) if he is satisfied that the order would make a person stateless', but this is subject to an exception inserted by the Immigration Act 2014: guidance confirms that s.40(4A) 'provides for the deprivation of British citizenship on conducive grounds, even if it would render a person stateless, if they have conducted themselves in a manner seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK and if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able to become a national of another country or territory'. Before any deprivation order is made the Secretary of State must give the person written notice of the decision, the reasons for it, and their right of appeal, although notice can be withheld in limited circumstances such as national security. Caseworkers must also give the best interests of any affected child 'primary, but not the only, consideration', and must consider whether deprivation would engage the person's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly Article 8 where the person has lived in the UK for some time.