Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to extend the period for EU Settlement Scheme applications for people resident in Northern Ireland; and whether the Government plans to include EU Settlement Scheme applications in a request for an extension to the grace period for the Northern Ireland Protocol as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

There are no plans to extend the deadline for applications to the EU Settlement Scheme.

We have continued to receive and process thousands of applications a day to the scheme throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 5 million applications received and more than 4.6 million applications concluded by 31 January 2021.

Support for applicants who need it has remained available, including from the network of 72 organisations across the UK now grant-funded by the Home Office to help vulnerable people apply to the scheme.

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.

Published guidance for EUSS applicants on the impact of COVID-19 is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-eu-settlement-scheme-guidance-for-applicants.