Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to support young adults and children on the private life route who (a) are nearing the completion of their five-year qualifying period for settlement and (b) may be affected by a proposed extension to a ten-year settlement period.

The earned settlement model, proposed in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026. Details of the earned settlement scheme, including any transitional arrangements for those already in the UK, will be finalised following that consultation.

The consultation directly seeks views on retaining the current treatment of children and young adults who have grown up in the UK without an immigration status, allowing them to settle 5 years after regularising their status.

A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, as well as the May 2025 Immigration White Paper preceding it, have also both committed to retaining a five-year route to settlement for the spouses and children of British nationals.