Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that no EU citizen who has lived in the UK for more than the five years required for Settled Status and is unable to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme by the 30 June 2021 deadline because they were not aware of that scheme and deadline or did not realise they were required to apply will lose their status and rights.

The Home Office has received more than 5.4 million applications to the EU Settlement Scheme to 30 April 2021. Our focus remains on encouraging those EU citizens and their family members eligible for the scheme who have yet to apply to do so before the 30 June 2021 deadline for those resident in the UK by the end of the transition period.

We recently launched another marketing campaign for this purpose, bringing to £7.9 million our investment in such activity. The campaign highlights the significant support in applying to the scheme available to those who need it, including from the network of now 72 organisations across the UK, grant funded by the Home Office with £22 million to help vulnerable people apply.

In line with the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, we have made clear where a person eligible for status under the scheme has reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply. The non-exhaustive guidance on reasonable grounds for submitting a late application we published on 1 April 2021 includes where there are compelling practical or compassionate reasons why a person may have been unaware of the requirement to apply to the scheme by the deadline or may have failed to do so.