Immigration: EU Nationals

(asked on 6th December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the cost of providing physical cards as proof of settled status.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 14th December 2021

If we were required to issue a physical card to everyone who is granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), we would have to provide them with biometric cards akin to the biometric residence permit we plan to phase out by the end of 2024.

During the passage of The Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020, we estimated it would cost at least £270m if each of the 3.6m EEA citizens granted leave under the EUSS at that time was provided with a biometric card.

Up to the end of September this year over 5.2 million people had obtained a grant of status under the EUSS. We therefore expect this estimate to now be much higher.

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