Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether former higher education students who are EU nationals who apply for permanent residence in the UK are required to have held comprehensive private health insurance during the time during which they were in higher education; and if so, whether students from EU countries are notified of the existence of such a requirement when, or before, they begin their courses of study.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
EU citizens and their family members have the right to enter, live and acquire permanent residence in other Member States when certain conditions are met, as set out in EU law. This includes a requirement to hold comprehensive sickness insurance where they have been exercising their Treaty rights as students and later rely on such periods to qualify for permanent residence.
Guidance on the conditions for exercising Treaty rights as a student has always been publicly available to EU nationals. This can currently be found from page 21 onwards of the guidance on ‘qualified persons’ available on the UKGOV website via the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/european-economic-area-nationals-qualified-persons
The guidance is also attached to this answer.
Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that a full and substantive reply is given to the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed to his letter of 6 January 2015 regarding the Shared Services Directorate and his constituent M.W.
Answered by James Brokenshire
My Noble Friend Lord Bates wrote to the right hon. Member on 20 March.
Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what targets have been set for the release of her Department's material to the National Archives; what progress has been made in meeting those targets; and how many staff in her Department are engaged in reviewing records for that purpose.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Home Office targets for review of historical material are those set by the Public Records Acts as amended by the transition period for the reduction of the ’30 year rule’ to a ’20 year rule’ established in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and its enacting secondary legislation. For 2014, the statutory requirement is for records dated 1985 and 1986 to be transferred to The National Archives by the end of the calendar year.
The department reports its progress against the requirements of the transition period to The National Archive on a bi-annual basis, which is then published on The National Archive’s website:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/record-transfer-report.htm.
The last report was made in Spring 2014, the next is due this autumn.
The Home Office has a team of 10 staff engaged in review of its historical records.
Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will reply to correspondence from the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed of 2 December 2013 and 27 March 2014 on a constituent's complaint relating to previous employment in her Department.
Answered by Karen Bradley
A reply was sent by the Home Office Shared Services Directorate on 6 May 2014.