Scotland analysis: borders and citizenship
This written ministerial statement was laid in the House of Commons by Theresa May and in the House of Lords by Lord Taylor of Holbeach.
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Theresa May):
I am today laying before the House the tenth paper in the Government’s Scotland analysis programme, Scotland analysis: borders and citizenship. This series of publications is designed to inform the debate on Scotland’s future within the United Kingdom ahead of this year’s referendum.
This paper analyses the UK’s framework for managing its common external border, considers the benefits of an absence of internal borders within the UK, as well as the implications for both if people in Scotland vote for independence. It also considers the impact that Scottish independence may have on issues of citizenship.
The paper sets out the importance of borders and the considerations that states around the world must take into account when determining how to manage their borders. It then analyses the UK’s internal and external borders, and examines the current framework for managing the UK’s external border.
The paper then considers the UK’s policies and systems for managing the movement of people into the UK, both for short term visits and economic migration. It sets out some of the issues that the government of an independent Scottish state may have to consider when determining how to manage the movement of people into and out of an independent Scotland.
It also assesses how the movement of goods, both legal and illegal, between Scotland and the UK could be impacted if Scotland became an independent state, and the challenges this could pose for the governments of both the continuing UK and an independent Scottish state.
Finally, the paper also considers the question of citizenship and how an independent Scottish state may define its own citizenship policy. It then analyses the impact on the citizenship of the continuing UK if Scotland became an independent state.
Future papers from the Scotland analysis programme will be published over the course of 2014 to ensure that people in Scotland have access to the facts and information ahead of the referendum.
Copies of the paper are available in the Vote Office.