Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether during the private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme his Department instructed local authorities to support eligible non-UK EU children in care to secure British citizenship.

During the second Private Beta phase of the EU Settlement Scheme, participating local authorities were not instructed to support eligible EU national children in care to secure British citizenship.

Local authorities participated on a voluntary basis to apply on behalf of some children in their care. Only looked after EU national children (within the meaning of section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) were eligible to participate in this phase of the scheme.
The Private Beta phase did not involve applications for British citizenship, which is a separate process.