UK citizenship test book is ‘outdated and full of errors’

THE UK citizenship test book is riddled with errors and omissions, a House of Lords report has warned.

The report, about integration into UK society, argued that the Life in the UK handbook needed “completely rewriting” because it contained out-ofdate information and mistakes.

The report said “matters are stated as facts which were correct at the date of publication, but which might reasonably have been expected not to be accurate for long”.

For example, it said, Margaret Thatcher was included in a list of prime ministers who were still alive, but this was only true for two months after publication.

One question also called the Human Rights Convention the “European Convention”, even though it is one of the few passed by the Council of Europe which does not actually have European in its title. Previous editions contained many more factual errors that have since been corrected, including a claim that Charles II had been recalled from exile in France, when in fact he had been in Holland.

The book also omits to mention the Supreme Court, and the test does not require knowledge about the NHS, educational qualifications, what subjects are taught in schools, how to report a crime or call an ambulance.

The test is seen as a “barrier to acquiring citizenship rather than a means of creating better citizens”, the report said.

The Lords said that integration efforts had been too focused on minority ethnic communities and needed to be more focused on white British communities, particularly those in rural and coastal areas.