Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of allowing time already spent lawfully living and working in the UK to count towards eligibility for indefinite leave to remain where settlement requirements are subsequently changed.

The consultation for the earned settlement model, as proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, was open to the public between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026.

The new model will increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years. Although not all visa routes lead directly to settlement, under the proposed model, time already spent lawfully in the UK by people in a qualifying route will count towards their qualifying period once the final model is introduced.

Once the Home Secretary has decided the final model, it will be subject to economic and equality impact assessments. These will be published in due course.