Office for Security and Counter-
Tel: 020 7035 4848
Terrorism
Fax: 020 7035 4745
2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
www.homeoffice.gov.uk
M Elmaazi
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
FOI Ref: 49114
16 July 2018
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your e-mail of 22 June 2018, in which you ask for the following information:
1. How many people have been stripped of their British citizenship by the Home Office
from 01 January 2001 to 22 June 2018?
2. If possible please break this down by year.
Your request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
Explanation of deprivations under The British Nationality Act 1981
The British Nationality Act 1981 (the Act) provides the Secretary of State powers to
deprive a person of citizenship status only under the circumstances set out at sections
40(2) and 40(3) of the Act. Section 40(2) allows the Secretary of State to deprive any
person of British citizenship, should he deem it conducive to the public good to do so.
Section 40(3) allows the Secretary of State to deprive a person who has obtained
citizenship by naturalisation or registration where the Secretary of State is satisfied that
citizenship was obtained by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of
material fact.
I am able to provide some of the information requested as follows. Between 1 January
2001 and 1 January 2006 no person was deprived of citizenship by the Secretary of State.
From 1 January 2006 until 31 December 2015, 81 people were deprived of citizenship
under the Act. The table attached at Annex B provides a breakdown by calendar year of
the number of people deprived during this period.
The Home Office is not obliged under 22 of the Freedom of Information Act to provide
information that is intended for future publication. The information you have requested
relating to the period 1 January 2016 to 22 June 2018 is intended for future publication.
In line with the terms of this exemption, we have considered whether it would be in
the public interest for us to provide you with the information ahead of publication,
despite the exemption being applicable. In this case, it has been concluded that the
public interest favours withholding the information; the reasons have been set out
in Annex A.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review
of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to
xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx, quoting reference
49114.
If you ask for an internal
review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.
As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request will be
reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you
remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the
Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information
Home Office
Annex A - ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION
The Home Office considers the information that has been requested (deprivation decisions
relating to the period 1 January 2016 to 22 June 2018), to be exempt from disclosure on
the grounds that the information is intended for future publication. The information is
exempt from disclosure under section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI Act). This
exemption is defined in the Act as follows:
22(1) Information is exempt information if— (a) the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the
authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not),
(b) the information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the
request for information was made, and
(c) it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from
disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).
(2) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that, compliance with
section 1(1)(a) would involve the disclosure of any information (whether or not already
recorded) which falls within subsection (1).
Public interest test in relation to section 22
Some of the exemptions in the FOI Act, referred to as ‘qualified exemptions’, are subject to
a public interest test (PIT). This test is used to balance the public interest in disclosure
against the public interest in maintaining the exemption. We must carry out a PIT where
we are considering using any of the qualified exemptions in response to a request for
information.
The ‘public interest’ is not the same as what interests the public. In carrying out a PIT we
consider the greater good or benefit to the community as a whole if the information is
released or not. Transparency and the ‘right to know’ must be balanced against the need
to enable effective government and to serve the best interests of the public.
The FOI Act is ‘applicant blind’. This means that we cannot, and do not, ask about the
motives of anyone who asks for information. In providing a response to one person, we are
expressing a willingness to provide the same response to anyone, including those who
might represent a threat to the UK.
When assessing whether or not it was in the public interest to disclose the information to
you, we took into account the following factors:
Considerations in favour of disclosing the information
There is a general public interest in the immediate disclosure of information to ensure
departmental transparency and accountability. There is public interest in the public having
access to and being provided with sufficient information relating to the number of
individuals who have been deprived of their British citizenship status under s40(2) and
s40(3) of the BNA 1981.
Furthermore, there is interest in providing the public with sufficient information to enable
their understanding of decisions which may affect them. We recognise that there may be a
public interest in disclosing this information now, and that this may also weigh in favour of
it being unreasonable to wait for the information to be published.
Considerations in favour of maintaining the exemption
It is in the public interest to ensure that the publication of official information is a properly
planned and managed process. The Home Office must ensure that the information
intended for publication meets the standards and requirements set for departmental
publications. As the assurance process is ongoing, early release of the requested
information could be misrepresentative of the information and could potentially impact
upon by third parties and voluntary organisations. It would therefore be unfair for the Home
Office to release this information prior to meeting such standards.
Moreover, there is a public interest in permitting the Home Office to publish information in
a manner and form of its own choosing which could be undermined by previous disclosure.
Publication before the planned date would undermine the Home Office pre-planned
publication procedure and ability to use staff resources in a planned way so that
reasonable publication timetables are not undermined.
Conclusion
We conclude that the balance of the public interest lies in maintaining the exemption and
withholding the information because it is in the overall public interest that the Home Office
is able to plan its publication of information in a managed and cost effective way. This
would not be possible if immediate disclosure were made.
The information will ultimately be made available to the public and is estimated for release
later in 2018. We consider this to support withholding the information at this time.
Annex B
Number of people
deprived of
Year
citizenship
2006
*
2009
*
2010
*
2011
6
2012
6
2013
18
2014
23
2015
19
Total
81
* less than five
Notes:
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the
standard of Official Statistics.
