Immigration: Earned Settlement

Debate between Sarah Olney and Shabana Mahmood

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

I can confirm that those who arrived under the ECAA, which is a closed route that reflects the particular agreement that we were part of then, will face no changes to their settlement—they are outside the scope of earned settlement.

[Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)]

I have constituents who are waiting on the five-year route to ILR, who have brought their spouses and children with them to this country and taken on high-skilled, high-paying roles. Their spouses will now have to apply separately and will be on a 10-year scheme. If their children reach adulthood before both spouses have achieved ILR, they will not be eligible to remain in this country, despite having been here since childhood. Can the Home Secretary give any reassurance to those families in my constituency who are deeply worried about their children being left without citizenship?

[Shabana Mahmood]

The hon. Member has probably not yet had the opportunity to look at the chapter on dependants within the consultation response, so let me reassure her that we have confirmed that the position on children is largely unchanged. Spouses will normally settle at the same time as the main applicant if they arrive at the same time; if they arrive after the main applicant, they will do the same time period. Looking at income—we consulted specifically on this point—we have also said that for those on lower incomes, or to reflect the fact that one partner might take time out for caring responsibilities, combined household income can be used rather than individual income.

Independent Sentencing Review

Debate between Sarah Olney and Shabana Mahmood

Thursday 22nd May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

Studies show a 60% reduction in offending. My hon. Friend is right to say that, for one subset of offenders, offending relates to power. For another subset of offenders, we believe that a combination of chemical suppressants and psychological interventions can have a big and positive impact. A pilot has been trundling along for many years, and nobody has shown much interest in it, including any of my predecessors—Tory Justice Secretaries just let it carry on. I am not willing to do that, and I am not squeamish about taking further measures. We are going to have a national roll-out of this programme, and I will ensure that is what happens. I am expanding it to two further regions, including for prisoners in 20 further prisons, so that we can build the evidence base and make sure that we are using every tool at our disposal to cut reoffending.

[Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)]

I welcome the Government’s commitment to extending the pilot scheme to give free sentencing transcripts for rape and serious sexual offences—something for which I have long campaigned. I am sorry that the Victims Minister, the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), has just left the Chamber, because I wanted to pay tribute to her for all her work on this issue. I also pay tribute to the victims, survivors and campaigners, and particularly my own constituent Juliana Terlizzi, for their bravery and advocacy on this issue. I look forward to continuing to work with the Minister on this issue. Can the Lord Chancellor tell us what measures will be taken to ensure that victims know about the scheme, and that they understand their right to request a transcript of the sentencing remarks? I know that the pilot has shown how much that contributes to their recovery and their welfare after sentencing.

[Shabana Mahmood]

I pay tribute to the hon. Lady for her work in this area, and I will pass on her remarks to the Victims Minister. I also pay tribute to her constituent. It is very difficult to raise these issues and talk about them openly, and her constituent has shown real bravery in coming forward and explaining why the scheme would have made a difference to her own recovery.

I am very pleased to extend the pilot scheme. We will learn the lessons about how the first pilot scheme worked in the first year, and if we need to do more on publicising what the scheme can do and its availability, we will do so. The hon. Lady will know that I want to make further progress on using AI technology to make transcripts more widely available, because I believe in a transparent justice system. I do not believe that we are very far away from having tech that is accurate enough to be a matter of court record, but we are not quite there yet. It is something we continue to work on.