Non-UK Service Personnel Settlement Fees: Public Consultation Outcome
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ben Wallace)
This is a joint statement with the Secretary of State for the Home Office (Pritti Patel).
Last year we announced that a public consultation would be held seeking views on a policy proposal for the Government to waive settlement fees for non-UK service personnel who met certain criteria should they apply to remain in the UK at the end of their military service; views were also sought on the scope of the policy.
The public consultation ran for six weeks from 26 May to 7 July 2021 and attracted a significant amount of interest from Service Personnel, veterans, families, service support organisations and members of the public. The level of interest demonstrates how important this issue is to many and confirms that the Government’s policy proposal to waive settlement fees for non-UK service personnel who meet certain criteria is the right thing to do.
After careful consideration of the responses, the Government have decided that a fee waiver will be introduced and will apply to:
Non-UK service personnel who have served for at least six years and meet all other Home Office suitability criteria;
non-UK service personnel discharging due to an illness or injury which is attributable to service, irrespective of the length of their service and providing they meet all other Home Office suitability criteria; and
non-UK veterans who are currently living in the UK who have not regularised their immigration status and had served for at least six years or had been discharged due to an illness or injury which was attributable to service and meet all other Home Office suitability criteria.
The Government response to the consultation will be published on the gov.uk website on 23 February 2022. The fee waiver will be implemented by the Home Office in the spring 2022 fees regulations changes and there will be further communications explaining the changes in due course.
We welcome this change and believe it is a positive step which will assist those non-UK service personnel who wish to remain in the UK after their service in the armed forces to do so.
Attachments can be viewed online at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2022-02-23/HCWS624
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