Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people with active but incomplete applications for settled and pre-settled status will be entitled to free NHS treatment after 31 October 2019.

European Union citizens living in the United Kingdom on or before exit day will remain eligible for free National Health Service care as long as they remain ordinarily resident here. Being ordinarily resident broadly means living here on a lawful and properly-settled basis for the time being.

It is not currently necessary for an EU citizen to demonstrate that they have status under the EU Settlement Scheme in order to access the NHS. The European Settlement Scheme secures the residency rights for EU citizens who have been residing in the UK prior to the day we leave the EU. EU citizens already living in the UK on exit day have up until 31 December 2020 to apply for Settled Status, but their access to healthcare will remain the same regardless of whether they apply for Settled Status up to then.