Remedy
Start free

Section 117D: Interpretation of this Part

Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 · 2002 c. 41View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 5A: Article 8 of the ECHR: public interest considerations

In this Part—

  • "Article 8" means Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights;

  • "qualifying child" means a person who is under the age of 18 and who—

    (a)is a British citizen, or

    (b)has lived in the United Kingdom for a continuous period of seven years or more;

  • "qualifying partner" means a partner who—

    (a)is a British citizen, or

    (b)who is settled in the United Kingdom (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 — see section 33(2A) of that Act).

In this Part, "foreign criminal" means a person—

who is not a British citizen,
who has been convicted in the United Kingdom of an offence, and
who—
has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of at least 12 months,
has been convicted of an offence that has caused serious harm, or
is a persistent offender.

For the purposes of subsection (2)(b), a person subject to an order under—

section 5 of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 (insanity etc),
section 57 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (insanity etc), or
Article 50A of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (insanity etc),

has not been convicted of an offence.

In this Part, references to a person who has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of a certain length of time—

do not include a person who has received a suspended sentence (unless a court subsequently orders that the sentence or any part of it (of whatever length) is to take effect);
do not include a person who has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of that length of time only by virtue of being sentenced to consecutive sentences amounting in aggregate to that length of time;
include a person who is sentenced to detention, or ordered or directed to be detained, in an institution other than a prison (including, in particular, a hospital or an institution for young offenders) for that length of time; and
include a person who is sentenced to imprisonment or detention, or ordered or directed to be detained, for an indeterminate period, provided that it may last for at least that length of time.

If any question arises for the purposes of this Part as to whether a person is a British citizen, it is for the person asserting that fact to prove it.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.