Oral Answers to Questions

Martyn Day Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Fortunately, very few of us in this House can ever understand or will ever have to go through what the family of Tanis Bhandari had to go through; that was a tragic incident that we all wish would never happen to anybody. My hon. Friend is right that the process around post-sentence supervision has changed following the implementation of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, but I am always willing, as, I know, are colleagues at the Ministry of Justice—I think my hon. Friend has arranged for the family to meet the Secretary of State for Justice later today—to look at what more we can learn from the experiences of today and the past.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

6. If she will make it her policy for non-UK EU citizens resident in the UK to retain full residency rights after the UK has left the EU.

[Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)]

10. If she will make it her policy for non-UK EU citizens resident in the UK to retain full residency rights after the UK has left the EU.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Amber Rudd)]

The Prime Minister has made it clear that one of her 12 negotiating priorities is to secure the status of EU nationals already living in the UK as soon as possible, once formal negotiations have begun. She has also made it clear that she seeks a deal based on reciprocity, which also secures the status of UK nationals living elsewhere in the EU.

[Martyn Day]

The cross-party Exiting the European Union Committee published its second report yesterday. It unanimously agreed that the Government should make a unilateral decision to safeguard the rights of EU nationals living in the UK. Will the Home Secretary now commit to doing so?

[Amber Rudd]

I will of course read the report with the respect and interest that it deserves. Nevertheless, I feel that reciprocity is an important part of securing the position not only of the EU nationals, who add such value to our economy and are so welcome here, but the UK citizens who live their lives abroad in the EU.