Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Government has to provide full grandfathering or full transitional protection for Skilled Worker visa holders and their dependants who were already granted leave before any earned settlement rule change, by allowing them to apply for settlement under the 5-year qualifying period that applied when they entered or extended their visas.

The government’s proposals for settlement reform were set out in the Command Paper ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’ (CP1448) and were the subject of a public consultation between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026.

We received over 200,000 responses from the public and organisations and are now considering all responses received.  This will help inform the development of the final earned settlement model.

Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly.  This will also include both economic and equality impact assessments.