Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing parents over the age of 65 to emigrate to the UK as adult dependents.

The family Immigration Rules implemented in July 2012 require non-European Economic Area national adult dependants, including parents and grandparents, to demonstrate that they require a level of long-term personal care that can only be provided in the UK by their sponsor here. The route now provides for those most in need of care, but not for those who would simply prefer to live in the UK, given the significant NHS and social care costs to which these cases can give rise. Adult relatives can continue to visit a family member in the UK for up to six months but must return home at the end of their visit.