Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the immigration health surcharge for people who already (a) work and (b) pay taxes in the UK.

The Government has no plans to remove the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) for temporary migrants who work and pay taxes in the UK.

It is right those granted temporary immigration permission for more than six months should contribute to the sustainability of our NHS. Having paid the IHS, temporary migrants can access the NHS as soon as they arrive in the UK and will only be charged for services that a permanent resident would also pay for, such as prescription charges in England.

Although some temporary migrants will pay tax and National Insurance contributions after they start work in the UK, they will not on average have made the same financial contribution to the NHS which most UK nationals and permanent residents have made, or will make, over the course of their working lives. It is an individual’s immigration status, not their tax and National Insurance contributions, which governs their access to the NHS.