Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of UK-trained overseas Veterinary Surgeons working in the UK under the current visa regulations that will be required to leave the UK in the next five years.

Veterinarians from outside the EU can apply to come to the UK under Tier 2 (General), our main route for skilled workers. Tier 2 is a route to settlement and so no Veterinary Surgeons who are in the UK on this route would be required to leave as long as they meet the settlement requirements. As Veterinarians are on the UK Shortage Occupation List, they are exempt from having to meet the settlement salary threshold.

The EU Settlement Scheme makes it easy for Veterinary Surgeons who are EU citizens and want to stay in the UK to get the UK immigration status they need in order to continue living and working here as they do now.