To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are any circumstances in which it makes a material difference to the inheritance of British citizenship by descent whether the citizenship is inherited from the maternal or the paternal side. (224106)

[holding answer 17 September 2008]: The British Nationality Act 1981 makes no distinction between men and women in terms of their ability to pass on the benefits of their status under the Act to their children. Nor does it distinguish, so far as British citizens by descent are concerned, between those whose ancestral connection with the United Kingdom is traced through the male line and those whose connection is traced through the female line.