Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Government plans to exempt people living in the UK from its proposed earned settlement reforms; and what assessment it has made of the potential impact of those proposals on the security and wellbeing of people who have established their lives in the UK.

On 2 November 2026, the Home Secretary announced the Government’s final approach to earned settlement, following a 12-week public consultation which received more than 200,000 responses. The new framework will ensure that the time it takes to qualify for settlement reflects an individual’s character, contribution, integration and residence.

The Government has set out that the Earned Settlement reforms will apply to most people who are already in the UK who have not yet settled. Targeted transitional arrangements will apply to specified care workers and public-sector workers who were already in the UK before the publication of the Immigration White Paper in May 2025. These are one-off arrangements for clearly defined existing cohorts and do not provide a wider exemption for everyone already in the UK.

The Government recognises the importance of settlement to those who have established their lives in the UK. More than 200,000 responses to the consultation were considered in developing the final framework, which includes targeted protections for vulnerable and transitional cohorts.

We also remain committed to publishing economic, equality and child impact assessments ahead of implementation. We will also publish further guidance, setting out additional technical and operational detail, informed by continued engagement with affected groups and stakeholders.