UK Supreme Court Confirms £1,012 Child Citizenship Fee

Supreme Court upholds government’s right to set child citizenship fees as it chooses

The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to the level at which the government has set the fees for children to register as British citizens. The court held that the government has been authorised by Parliament to set the level of the fees as it chooses. Currently, the fee is £1,012 for a child, which is simply unaffordable for many families. As a consequence, many children eligible for British citizenship because of their birth or residence never actually become citizens.

The case is R (O (a minor)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKSC 3, although it has often been referred to as “the PRCBC case” after the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens, which has led the work on it.

The main judgment was delivered by Lord Hodge. Lady Arden gave a separate but concurring judgment.
The facts

There were two claimants. First, there was a child, O, who was eligible for British citizenship because she had lived in the UK for ten years but whose mother could not afford the fee. Her mother was a single parent in receipt of welfare benefits. There is simply no way that a person in that position can save enough money to afford a fee of over £1,000 in order to register their child as a citizen.

Second, there was PRCBC, a small charity that has done brilliant work both highlighting the problem of children missing out on citizenship and also working to assist them case by case itself and by educating and training others. There was also an intervener, Amnesty International.

There was no dispute in the case that “for many young people and their families the current level of fees is unaffordable” (paragraph 5).