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.

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.