Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there has been a significant change in the number of applications for leave to remain under the ECAA Turkish Business person visa route in the last six months; and if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of this change.

Leave granted under the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) allows people, largely Turkish nationals, to work or establish businesses in the UK.

The Home Office does not publish information on ECAA applications and also does not publish information specifically relating to grants of Indefinite Leave to Remain under the ECAA route.

However, from the immigration statistics published for the calendar year ending December 2025, it was noted that the published data on grants of Settlement under the Work Permit holder category largely relates to persons granted leave under the ECAA route. The published statistics for the year ending December 2025 show that there were 6,367 Settlement grants for Work Permit holders, an increase of 72% on the previous 12 months.