Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of his Department paying the £65 application fee for settled or pre-settled status for EU nationals (a) employed by and (b) working as an outsourced worker in his Department; what estimate he has made of the total cost to his Department of paying those fees; and what assessment he has made of the risks that the EU Settlement Scheme poses to the retention of EU nationals (i) employed by or (ii) working as an outsourced worker in his Department.

The UK Government currently does not plan to pay the Settled Status Fee for its non-UK EU citizen employees. The fee is set at an affordable rate (£65), less than the cost of an UK passport.

Outsourced workers are not employees of the Department and therefore this would be a decision for their employers.

DCMS staff declare their national identity voluntarily so this may not be a true representation of the workforce as a whole. Therefore it wouldn’t be appropriate to use this information to determine the cost to the department of paying these fees.

We value the significant contribution made by EU citizens working in the DCMS and we want these colleagues to continue to play a full role in the work of the department. We are committed to supporting our EU citizen employees across the department.