To ask Her Majesty's Government how many current immigration or asylum detainees are either de jure or de facto stateless. [HL1183]

Currently there are 21 detainees held in the estate who are stateless people.

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill is compatible with Protocol 4 to the European Convention of Human Rights which guarantees the right of nationals to enter their country of nationality. [HL1567]

The right of British Nationals to enter the UK and any compatible rights under Protocol 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights is not an issue that is covered by the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill.

Only persons with the right of abode in the UK under Section 2 of the Immigration Act 1971, being British citizens and certain Commonwealth citizens, are free to enter and remain in the UK without being subject to immigration control.

British nationals without the right of abode do not enjoy a right as set out in the Protocol 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This is because the UK has signed but not ratified Article 3 of Protocol 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The protocol was signed in 1963 but not subsequently ratified because of the potential conflict with our domestic law in relation to the issue of British passports and the acquisition of a right of abode by categories of British nationals who do not currently have that right.

British nationals continue to be admitted freely to the United Kingdom on production of a United Kingdom passport issued in the United Kingdom and Islands or the Republic of Ireland prior to 1 January 1973, unless their passport has been endorsed to show that they are subject to immigration control. British nationals may also naturalise or register as a British citizen under the British Nationality Act 1981 and therefore acquire the right of abode in the UK under the Immigration Act 1971.