“Whether she has received legal advice on the compatibility of recent changes to her Department’s guidance entitled Good character: caseworker guidance, updated on 10 February 2025, with the 1951 Refugee Convention.”
Asked by
Pete Wishart
Answering Minister
the Secretary of State for the Home Department
Answer from Hansard
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Seema Malhotra)
The hon. Member will know that we take our international obligations very seriously. We are satisfied that the good character policy is compliant with those obligations. We have strengthened our policy to make it clear that anyone who enters the UK illegally, including small boat arrivals, will normally be refused British citizenship. The good character assessment has been a feature of UK immigration law since 1981 and there has never been any suggestion, either now or in the past, that it is inconsistent with our obligations under the refugee convention or any other treaty.