Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the retrospective application of new settlement rules is consistent with the principles of administrative fairness and legitimate expectation for residents who entered under previous settlement rules.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, which remains open until 12 February 2026.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement, in order to ease the impact of changes for particular groups or preserve already afforded permissions by the previous system. No transitional arrangements have been decided upon yet.

Details of the earned settlement model, including any transitional arrangements for those already in the UK, will be finalised following that consultation. The principles of administrative fairness will be considered in the formulation of the final policy with the aid of the consultation findings. The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.