Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to release guidance on the new Immigration Rules that make rough sleeping grounds for cancelling or refusing permission to be in the UK which are due to be enforced from 1 December 2020.

The new Immigration Rules make provision for the refusal or cancellation of permission to stay in the UK on the basis of rough sleeping. The new rule will apply on a discretionary basis to non-EEA nationals from 1 December 2020 and to newly arriving EEA nationals from 1 January 2021. The provision will be used sparingly and only where individuals have repeatedly refused support offers, such as accommodation, and are engaged in persistent anti-social behaviour.

Guidance will be provided for decision-makers to make clear the circumstances in which permission may be cancelled or refused, and this will also be available on GOV.UK when the new provision comes into force.