Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether EU citizens that have not applied for settled status by 31 December 2020 will be able to remain in the UK after this date in the event that an agreement is not reached by the end of the transition period.

The UK left the EU on 31 January on the basis of the Withdrawal Agreement reached in October 2019. No further agreement is required and the protections for resident EU citizens provided in the Withdrawal Agreement are now underpinned by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 and by the EU Settlement Scheme.

In line with the Withdrawal Agreement, EU citizens resident in the UK by the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 will be eligible to apply for UK immigration status under the EU Settlement Scheme. Their current residence rights under EU law will be protected during the grace period which will apply from 1 January 2021 until the application deadline of 30 June 2021. In addition, where a person has reasonable grounds for missing this deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply.