Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the answer of 1 November 2019 to Question 6360 on Immigration: EU Nationals, whether she plans to maintain the funding allocated to voluntary and community organisations throughout the UK to enable them to mobilise services targeted at vulnerable EU citizens beyond the end of March 2020.

The current grant funding scheme continues until the end of March 2020, and the Home Office is currently exploring options for the financial year of 2020/21.

As well as providing funding for charities which have supported hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, there are more than 1,500 Home Office staff working on the EU Settlement Scheme and 250 Settlement Resolution Centre staff providing assistance to applicants with any questions about the scheme or who need help applying.

Additional support is also available to those EU citizens in the UK who do not have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to apply. This includes over 300 assisted digital locations across the UK where people can be supported through their application.

There have been more than 3 million applications and 2.7 million granted status under the EU Settlement scheme.