British citizenship status: deprivation and nullity

Produced in partnership with Alison Harvey of No5 Barristers Chambers

Practice notes

British citizenship status: deprivation and nullity

Produced in partnership with Alison Harvey of No5 Barristers Chambers

Practice notes

This Practice Note discusses the powers of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) to deprive a person of British citizenship status or to declare the status a nullity. It also covers the procedure for deprivation of citizenship, the effects it has on the subject and their family members, appeal rights and relevant case law.

Legislative framework and guidance

A significant proportion of the cases on deprivation of British citizenship status are national security cases heard in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission where the reasons for deprivation are that a person is known or alleged to be a threat to national security. The circumstances in which a British national can lose their citizenship are, however, much broader.

Powers of deprivation in the full range of cases are found in section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981 (BNA 1981). Under section 40(1), British citizens, British Overseas Territories citizens, British Overseas Citizens, British Nationals (Overseas), British Protected Persons and British subjects are all liable to deprivation of their citizenship status where

Alison Harvey

Barrister, No5 Barristers Chambers

Alison Harvey has returned to practice from the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association where she was General Secretary, then Legal Director.

She trains, lectures and writes widely on immigration, asylum, nationality and human rights law. She is a contributor to Fransman's British Nationality Law and to Macdonald's Immigration law and Practice.

She has worked in the UK and overseas, representing clients before the Home Office, tribunals and courts, including working at the Refugee Legal Centre, Asylum Aid, and South West Law. She has worked with refugees, the internally displaced and the trafficked for the UN in West Africa, Darfur and Azerbaijan. She has worked extensively on the development of immigration law and policy in the UK, advising those lobbying on, and challenging, a total of nine immigration Acts (to date) as well as on the development of the points-based system and the immigration aspects of Brexit. Recent training credits include 'The Immigration Act 2016', 'Nationality Law is Fun' and 'Advanced Naturalisation' for the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association and 'Trafficking: identifying and assisting victims' for Free Movement.

She is co-chair of the Trustees of Kalayaan, working with overseas domestic workers, and led for Kalayaan in its work with its legal team for its intervention in the Supreme Court in the Reyes case.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

IP completion day definition

What does IP completion day mean?

Defined by the European Union (withdrawal agreement) Act 2020 as 31 December 2020 at 11.00 p.m.

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