Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether women who have gaps in their Comprehensive Sickness Insurance (CSI) as a result of maternity leave or childcare responsibilities will still qualify for citizenship if those gaps result in an applicant that has been resident in the UK for 10 years not fulfilling the CSI requirement.

No woman who had gaps in comprehensive sickness insurance as a result of maternity leave or childcare responsibilities has had their application for citizenship refused on such a basis.

Regulations set out the requirements which EEA nationals needed to follow if they wished to reside here lawfully on the basis of free movement. In the case of students or the self-sufficient – but not those who were working here – the possession of comprehensive sickness insurance has always been a requirement.

The British Nationality Act allows us to exercise discretion over this requirement in the special circumstances of any particular case. UKVI will consider cases sensitively, taking into account the nature and reasons for any period of unlawful residence alongside other information relevant to the individual.