Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme to (a) further European countries and (b) South and Central American countries.

We remain open to negotiating Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) arrangements with other countries and territories. However, as each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal agreement which also provides benefit to UK nationals, with the detail negotiated and agreed between the relevant parties, we are unable to disclose the status of negotiations as they occur. Further details of additional YMS agreements will be announced once they are concluded.