34. International norms for the prevention of statelessness, which bind the UK, establish that children who would otherwise be stateless shall acquire the nationality of the State where they were born.52 However, to establish if a child would ‘otherwise be stateless’ and meet their obligations under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961 Convention) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States must be able to determine whether the child has acquired the nationality of another State. The examination of whether the child would otherwise be stateless should be carried out by a competent authority with the necessary expertise, through an established procedure determining the child’s nationality or statelessness, and resolved immediately after birth registration or as soon as possible.53 35. The British Nationality Act 1981 currently provides that a child has the right to become a British citizen if they were born in the UK, have always been stateless, have lived in the UK for the last five years and have not been out of the country for more than 450 days in the five-year period.54 Further, the ability to register as a British citizen under the statelessness provisions is only possible under the age of 22. All children born in the UK may register themselves as British after age 10, subject to residence and good character requirements. 36. Nationality status is not recorded on birth registration documents across the UK (neither of the parents nor the child) and there is no formal, standalone procedure for determining nationality or statelessness. Most children will only have their nationality determined at the point of requesting a British passport, therefore until then, childhood statelessness or risk of statelessness is likely to remain unidentified. Barriers in accessing a nationality 37. Although some safeguards are in place in British nationality law to prevent statelessness, prohibitively high fees for registration and naturalisation are a major barrier for stateless people to acquire nationality. The UK currently charges a fee of £1,012 per child for children to register as a British citizen (which is approximately three times the administrative cost of processing an individual application),55 and there is no fee waiver available for children or stateless people, even if their families are destitute or the children are looked after by the State. In February 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court ruling that the fee for a child to register as a British national is unlawful because it is set without consideration of the best interests of children.56 A later decision of the Supreme Court noted that there was no duty to set fees at any particular level, but did not affect the Court of Appeal’s finding on this point.57 52 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 7 (as interpreted and applied by the Committee); 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Article 1. 53 UNHCR (2012), Guidelines on Statelessness No. 4: Ensuring Every Child's Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, HCR/GS/12/04: https://www.refworld.org/docid/50d460c72.html 54 British Nationality Act 1981, Section 36 & Schedule 2, Section 1 & 3: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/contents 55 PRCBC & Amnesty International UK (2019), Briefing on Fees for the Registration of Children as British Citizens, pp. 2-3. See also UK Supreme Court, R (PRCBC & O) v Secretary of State for the Home Department v Secretary of State for the Home Department, [2022] UKSC 3: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2021-0062-judgment.pdf 56 R (PRCBC & O) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 193: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA /Civ/2021/193.html 57 R (PRCBC & O) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKSC 3: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2021-0062-judgment.pdf 9