My Lords. I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

No. my Lords. it would not be appropriate to amend the British Nationality Act in the way suggested.

My Lords, while of course many recipients of the order would not wish to live in this country, is it not very anomalous that those whom Her Majesty has delighted to honour in this particular way do not necessarily have the right to enter or to live in this country which has honoured them?

My Lords, membership of the order would not be an acceptable criterion for the automatic grant of citizenship because that would be contrary to the scheme provided by the British Nationality Act 1981.

My Lords, will the noble Baroness not agree that it really is high time that there was a general review of the British Nationality Act as so many important amendments are needed to correct situations which have arisen, and since the Act has resulted in so much doubt, injustice and hardship to so many people?

Nonsense!

No, my Lords, I do not think this would be appropriate. Neither do I think that one should give thistles to Members of the Order of the Thistle nor baths to Members of the Order of the Bath.

My Lords, is not membership of the Order of the British Empire a compliment which Her Majesty pays to some people who have no real connection with this country but who have performed services which the people of this country have admired?

My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right.

My Lords, may I ask my noble friend to comment, following her reply to the noble Baroness, Lady Birk, with regard to a review of the British Nationality Act, whether in due course she would have the Government look at the matter of charges—which I understand are now amounting to a large profit—for those people applying for nationality? While I would not be asking her to abolish those charges, may I ask her to look at this matter with a view to not increasing them in the years ahead until they have become uneconomic?

My Lords, while I have listened to my noble friend with interest, I submit that that is another question.

My Lords, will the noble Baroness agree—I am sure she will not—that the whole of the British Nationality Act is very misconceived indeed, in that it refuses British nationality to those who are obviously of British descent simply on the grounds that they happen not to have been born on British soil?

My Lords, that also is another question.

My Lords, since the noble Baroness agrees that the people of this country have admired those who have received this order, would it not be fitting that the people of this country should also offer them hospitality when they need it?

My Lords, hospitality is in the eye of the beholder.