Clause 48
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Damian Green (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Ashford, Conservative)
Not quite, because, as I have just explained, certain minor offences are not covered by being triable on indictment. I suspect that the whole Committee would agree that they might not wish such things as parking fines, or even minor motoring offences, to be covered. We might not wish automatically to exclude people for ever from obtaining British citizenship for that kind of offence; equally, there will be no controversy about the fact that anyone who has committed a serious offence should not be considered as of good character and, therefore, should not be eligible for citizenship. “Triable on indictment” is the term of art that one can use to say, in essence, that it would catch most people who have committed criminal offences, apart from the most trivial ones. As I said, it is an exploratory amendment and I hope the Minister will agree with it.