Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme whose automated residency check result is (a) wholly or (b) partially unsuccessful will be informed of the reasons for that result.

The automated checks of employment and benefits records of applications to the EU Settlement Scheme by those who choose to provide their National Insurance number have enabled most adults so far granted status under the scheme to be so without needing to provide any further evidence of their UK residence.

Where the automated checks do not provide sufficient evidence of UK residence for the applicant to be granted the status for which they think they qualify, they can upload a wide variety of documentary evidence.

Where this is necessary, the results of the checks will indicate to the applicant which period(s) of residence they need to evidence. We will not be able to tell applicants why the automated check is unable to cover all their UK residence because doing so may introduce the risk of identity theft and abuse. We recognise that some applicants may lack documentary evidence for various reasons, and we will work flexibly with applicants to help them evidence their UK residence by the best means available to them.

More information about the automated checks including why records may not be found in full or in part is available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-settlement-scheme-uk-tax-and-benefits-records-automated-check.