Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 April 2021 to Question 181333 on Immigration: EU Nationals, what her Department's policy is in circumstances where an individual who is required to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme is unable to prove that they had reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of the Government directly contacting care home operators to ensure those operators are aware of the need for vulnerable and isolated residents to apply to the EU Settled Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Home Office officials have undertaken a range of work to reach care home operators and vulnerable applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).
The Home Office is also working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care, and the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government to ensure local authorities and care provider organisations are aware of the need to support those in care to submit applications. NHS employers, Scottish Social services and Wales Social care also sit on EUSS advisory groups which have been running since the Scheme launched in 2018.
A comprehensive three-year campaign has increased awareness of the need to apply to EUSS, targeting employers, including social care sector employers, and EEA and Swiss citizens themselves.
The Home Office has also provided up to £17million in grant funding to a grant funded network of 72 organisations provide bespoke support to vulnerable and hard to reach EU citizens and their family members eligible to apply to EUSS. Grant funded organisations include the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), and the Institute Organization for Migration (IOM) who work closely with local authorities. Earlier this year, the Home Office announced a further £4.5 million of funding to the 72 organisations to continue the support services well beyond the 30 June 2021 deadline.
As of 31 March 2021, 5.3 million applications had been received to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), and 4.98 million applications have been concluded, delivering on the government’s promise to secure the rights of millions of Europeans in UK law for years to come.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government plans to take in the event that an individual who is required to apply for EU Settled Status is unable to do so before the 30 June 2021 deadline.
Answered by Kevin Foster
In line with the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, the Government has made clear where a person eligible for status under the EU Settlement Scheme has reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline for applications by those resident in the UK by the end of the transition period, they will be given a further opportunity to apply.
Non-exhaustive guidance on what constitutes reasonable grounds for missing the deadline can be found at pages 26 to 44 of the main caseworker guidance for the scheme, which is available here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-caseworker-guidance.
The guidance will underpin a flexible and pragmatic approach to considering late applications under the scheme, in light of the circumstances of each case.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the need for paper applications to be made available for people with no access to online services or who are IT illiterate when applying for EU Settled Status.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Assistance for applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme is available via a network of 72 organisations across the UK, for which £22 million in grant funding has been made available by the Home Office, and via the Assisted Digital service, which can provide help over the telephone or in person in completing an application online.
Where a person needs to apply using a paper application form, this can be obtained from the EU Settlement Resolution Centre, which is open seven days a week to provide assistance over the telephone and by email.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that the processing time for EU Settled Scheme applications is five working days.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We currently have 1,500 UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) European Casework staff in post. We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand.
Our aim is to process all applications to the Scheme as quickly as possible. The majority of applications are concluded within 5 working days, but cases may take longer dependent on the circumstances of the case, for example if the applicant is facing an impending prosecution or has a criminal record.
The following link lists the expected processing times for EU Settlement Scheme applications, based upon current performance:
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that EU citizens who are resident in care homes in the UK are made aware of the requirement to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has provided £17million in grant funding to a network of 72 organisations which provide bespoke support to vulnerable and hard to reach EU citizens and their family members eligible to apply to the EUSS, including those who are resident in care homes or receiving some element of support from the care sector
On top of the £17million in grant funding, the Home Office recently announced a further £4.5million of funding to the 72 organisations to continue the support services well beyond the 30 June 2021 deadline.
Of the 72 Grant-funded Organisations (GFOs), 56 support the elderly to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme. These organisations are spread across the four nations.
In Scotland, Citizen’s Advice Scotland, have grant funding across their four consortiums, including thirty partner organisations who are working with 204 Care providers in the Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling local authority areas to target both EU citizens employed in the care sector, together with elderly EU citizens resident in care homes.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of requiring EU Nationals with settled status to update their passport details with the EU Settlement Scheme each time they renew their passport.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Holders of EU Settlement Scheme status are issued with a letter from the Home Office which provides clear instructions as to how and when individuals can update their details using the online service.
In addition to this relevant information is available on gov.uk by following this link:
We advise applicants to use the online Update Your Details service to update their passport information whenever it changes. When an update is made, the applicant will then use their new passport number to access their digital status.
Updating document details is advised, but not mandatory. Applicants can continue to log into their status using the document number they applied with.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help make applicants to the EU Settled Status Scheme aware of the requirement to notify renewed passport details to that Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Holders of EU Settlement Scheme status are issued with a letter from the Home Office which provides clear instructions as to how and when individuals can update their details using the online service.
In addition to this relevant information is available on gov.uk by following this link:
We advise applicants to use the online Update Your Details service to update their passport information whenever it changes. When an update is made, the applicant will then use their new passport number to access their digital status.
Updating document details is advised, but not mandatory. Applicants can continue to log into their status using the document number they applied with.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that the rights of EU citizens to live and work in the UK are maintained in the event that those EU citizens have not been able to secure their status before the deadline for closure of the EU Settlement Scheme on 30 June 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
In line with the Withdrawal Agreement, EU citizens resident in the UK by the end of the transition period have until 30 June 2021 to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, unless they have reasonable grounds for missing the deadline.
Those who apply before the deadline, but whose application is not decided until after it, will have their rights protected pending the outcome of their application (and of any appeal).
Where a person with reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline applies to the scheme after the deadline and is granted status, they will, consistent with the Withdrawal Agreement, enjoy the same rights from the time they are granted status as someone who applied before the deadline.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that EU citizens are able to access support to obtain their status through the EU Settlement Scheme by the deadline of 30 June 2021 in light of the disruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have worked extensively to promote awareness of the EUSS. The Home Office has already spent a total of £4.6 million on marketing campaigns to encourage those EU citizens and their family members who have not yet applied to do so. We recently launched a new £1.5 million wave of UK-wide advertising to ensure EU citizens and their family members are aware of the deadline and know they need to apply.
Guidance on how to apply and details of the support available to applicants (as it has been throughout the pandemic), is available through the EU Settlement Resolution Centre (SRC), which is open seven days a week to provide assistance over the telephone and by email. The SRC also provides a direct line for organisations working with vulnerable groups. In specific cases the SRC has the capacity to transfer customers to Assisted Digital for more bespoke support.
As well as the above process of “warm transfer” customers from SRC to our supplier We-Are-Digital (WAD), we signpost customers to our supplier WAD for the Assisted Digital service, which is available cost-free for customers who cannot access or struggle to use technology.
We remain committed to making sure everybody eligible for the EUSS can apply, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. We have already awarded £17 million of funding to a network of now 72 organisations across the UK, to ensure important information and assistance gets through to those who are hardest to reach, and no one is left behind. These organisations have helped more than 250,000 vulnerable people to apply to the EUSS already.
In addition, we recently announced a further £4.5 million for the Grant Funded Network so it can continue to provide a wide range of invaluable support across the UK, including after the 30 June deadline, ensuring those most at-risk continue to get the help they need.