by Bethany Rielly
THE Home Office has lost a legal bid to continue charging families £1,000 to register children for British citizenship after the court of appeal upheld that the fee is unlawful.
A judge ruled that ministers had failed to assess the impact of the exorbitant fee on children’s rights, adding that for some families it was “difficult to see how the fee could be afforded at all.”
Families are charged £1,012 to register their children for citizenship despite the administration costs of the procedure only amounting to £372. The Home Office uses the remaining £640 profit to cross-subsidise the immigration system.
In 2019 the High Court ruled that the fee was illegal, and that there was a “mass of evidence” that it prevents many children from registering for British citizenship, leaving them feeling “alienated, excluded and isolated.”
The Home Office appealed the High Court’s decision that it had failed in its duty to assess the best interests of children when considering the fee, but the court of appeal has rejected this move.
The case to challenge the fee was brought by campaign group the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) and a child affected by the fee, known only as O.
Responding to the judgement PRCBC chairwoman Carol Bohmer said she was “delighted” that the “scandalously high” fee has been found unlawful again.
Solicitor Maria Patsalos, who acted for PRCBC, said that the Home Office must now “swiftly” amend the fees to “ensure wealth is not a requirement for children to access their citizenship rights.”
Under legislation introduced in 1983, children born to non-British parents without settled status do not automatically become British citizens.
Instead they have the right to register for citizenship after 10 years or if their parents get settled status or citizenship.
But the rising cost to register and a lack of awareness of the procedure has meant that thousands of children have been denied this right, campaigners claim.
Following the ruling, lawyers and campaigners warned that barriers still remain which prevent children registering for citizenship.
“Children are still being excluded by this fee and by many other barriers, which the government should be doing all it can to remove,” Ms Bohmer added.
Amnesty International UK, which supported the case, said that the formal registration is being “used and abused” by the Home Office to raise funds, adding that this “must end.”
The Home Office said that it has acknowledged the court’s ruling and will review child registration fees “in due course.”
“Citizenship registration fees are charged as part of a wider fees approach designed to reduce the burden on UK taxpayers,” a spokesperson said.
