Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to allow a reduction in the Indefinite Leave to Remain qualifying period for Meat Hygiene Inspectors who are qualified veterinary surgeons from overseas but unable to register as Official Veterinarians due to Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons accreditation requirements.

The earned settlement model, proposed in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, will raise the standard qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years.

We are proposing a series of tests that will measure a person’s contribution to this country and either reduce or increase the amount of time to settlement. This will include work undertaken by the individual. This earned settlement model and the tests which measure contribution are currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation also seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement.

Details of the earned settlement scheme, including any transitional arrangements for those already in the UK, will be finalised following that consultation.