Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what estimate his Department has made of the number of UK citizens in each age group living in the EU27 that are expected to return to the UK in the event of the UK leaving the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.

The UK government has always acted to ensure that UK nationals can continue to live their lives broadly as they do now, and that remains our objective both in a deal and no deal scenario. The Withdrawal Agreement will protect the rights of around one million UK nationals in the EU and over 3 million EU citizens in the UK.

The UK cannot act unilaterally to protect the rights of UK nationals in the EU and that is why we have always prioritised reaching a reciprocal agreement with the EU. The Government has been calling on Member States to protect the rights of UK nationals in a no deal scenario and we welcome the progress that has been made. All Member States have set out their no deal plans and provided some reassurances that the rights of UK nationals will be protected in the event of a no deal, but we continue to call on them to go further and match our no deal offer to EU citizens.

The Government recognises the concerns of UK nationals in the EU including those who may choose to return to the UK, and published a policy paper on 4 April 2019 setting out the steps that we have taken to address these concerns should UK nationals decide to return, regardless of whether a deal is reached with the EU.