Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, it she will make it her Department's policy that (a) EU care workers and (b) other EU citizens who are unable to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme by the 30 June 2021 because they were unaware of the scheme or the deadline do not lose their status and rights.

The Home Office has run three bursts of marketing campaigns for the EU Settlement Scheme, spending £4.6 million, with the latest running throughout December 2020, to encourage EU citizens across the UK to apply. Nearly 4.9 million applications to the scheme had been received by 31 December 2020.

In line with the Withdrawal Agreement, the Government has made clear where a person has reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline for applications to the EU Settlement Scheme by EU citizens and their family members resident in the UK by the end of the transition period, they will be given a further opportunity to apply.

Non-exhaustive guidance will be published on what constitutes such reasonable grounds, to underpin a flexible and pragmatic approach to considering late applications under the scheme, based on the circumstances of each case.