Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to permanently exempt (a) NHS staff and (b) the families of NHS staff from the Immigration Health Surcharge.

We welcome the vital contribution NHS staff from across the globe make to our healthcare system.

The Government has recently announced a series of measures for key health workers on the frontline fighting coronavirus. Visas will be automatically extended for 12 months free of charge and there will be no Immigration Health Surcharge for the extension. These measures apply to NHS doctors, nurses and paramedics, and we have recently expanded this offer to cover more key NHS frontline health workers, including those working in eligible occupations in the independent health and care sector. This will also apply to their family members. The automatic extension offer will be for those whose visas expire between 31 March and 1 October. We estimate around 3,000 healthcare professionals, plus their families, will benefit.

Going forward, it is right those who come to the UK contribute to the NHS whose services they can access from when they arrive. Income from the Immigration Health Surcharge goes directly back into the NHS to help provide vital and lifesaving services.