Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's document entitled A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: statement and accompanying consultation on earned settlement, updated on 28 November 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of a retrospective application of the proposed changes to settlement rules on people currently on a five-year settlement pathway, including on lower income households and groups with protected characteristics.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Transitional arrangements refer to temporary measures or rules put in place to manage the shift from one system, or policy framework, to another. Details of the earned settlement model, including any transitional arrangements for those already in the UK, will be finalised following that consultation.

The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.