The Diplomatic Privileges (British Nationals) Order 1999

Made: 10th March 1999

Coming into force: 10th March 1999

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 10th day of March 1999 Present, The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council

Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by virtue and in exercise of the powers conferred on Her by section 2(6) of the 1964 Act or otherwise in Her Majesty vested, is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:—

Citation and commencement

1

This Order may be cited as the Diplomatic Privileges (British Nationals) Order 1999 and shall come into force forthwith.

Privileges of British Nationals

2

• (1) This Article applies to persons who are citizens of a country listed in Schedule 1 of this Order and who are also British nationals.

• (2) If a person to whom this Article applies is a member of a mission of a country listed in Schedule 1 to this Order or is a private servant of such a member and in either case is a citizen of that country, then for the purposes of Article 38 of Schedule 1 to the 1964 Act the privileges and immunities admitted or, as the case may be, granted by the receiving State shall in relation to that person be construed as the privileges and immunities to which that person would be entitled under the 1964 Act if he were not a British national.

• (3) In this Order, “British national” means a person who under the British Nationality Act 1981² and the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983³ is a British citizen, a British Dependent territories citizen or a British Overseas citizen or who under the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986⁴ is a British National (Overseas).

Revocations

2

The Orders listed in Schedule 2 to this Order are hereby revoked.

SCHEDULE 1

• Antigua and Barbuda

• Australia

• Bangladesh

• Barbados

• Belize

• Botswana

• Brunei

• Cameroon

• Canada

• Dominica

• Fiji

• Ghana

• Grenada

• Guyana

• India

• Jamaica

• Kenya

• Kiribati

• Lesotho

• Malawi

• Malaysia

• Maldives

• Malta

• Mauritius

• Mozambique

• Namibia

• Nauru

• New Zealand

• Nigeria

• Pakistan

• Papua New Guinea

• Republic of Cyprus

• Republic of Ireland

• Seychelles

• Sierra Leone

• Singapore

• Solomon Islands

• South Africa

• Sri Lanka

• St Christopher and Nevis

• St Lucia

• St Vincent and the Grenadines

• Swaziland

• Tanzania

• The Bahamas

• The Gambia

• Tonga

• Trinidad and Tobago

• Tuvalu

• Uganda

• Vanuatu

• Western Samoa

• Zambia

• Zimbabwe

SCHEDULE 2

Signed

A. K. Galloway — Clerk of the Privy Council

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order revokes and replaces the Diplomatic Privileges (Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies) Order 1964 and subsequent amending Orders.

Article 38 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, set out in Schedule 1 to the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964, provides for the privileges and immunities of persons who are members of diplomatic missions or the private servants of such members and who are, in either case, nationals of the receiving State. Under section 2(2) of the Act, as construed in the light of section 51(3) (a) (ii) of the British Nationality Act 1981, “national of the receiving State” means a British citizen, a British Dependent Territories citizen, a British Overseas citizen or a British National (Overseas). Section 2(6) of the 1964 Act gives power to Her Majesty by Order in Council to specify the extent to which privileges and immunities or additional privileges and immunities are to be accorded to such persons.

This Order provides that members of a diplomatic mission of a Commonwealth country and of the Republic of Ireland and their private servants who are both nationals of that Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland, as the case may be, and British nationals, shall be entitled to the privileges and immunities to which they would have been entitled under the 1964 Act if they had not been British nationals.

The Order brings up to the date the list of Commonwealth countries to which the 1964 Order applied.

Footnotes