Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the requirement for people who have proved their residency rights through the EU Settlement Scheme to do so again when applying for British Citizenship.

The EUSS only looks at physical presence and not lawful residence, and so there may be cases where nationality caseworkers need to satisfy themselves the person was here lawfully, when applicants are applying for British citizenship.

This is not a new requirement and was an assessment we have always been making. In most cases this will not involve any additional evidence, for example where the person was working in the UK and so clearly in the UK in accordance with EEA regulations.

There may be cases, however, where it is not clear on what basis a person was in the UK and so we will need to make further enquiries to establish lawful residence. This is a statutory requirement and cannot be ignored and applies to all applicants for British Citizenship.

We have amended the application forms to ensure we can gather as much of this information upfront at the application stage where possible.