Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 12 November (HL2103), whether they will now answer the question put; namely, what estimate they have made of the number of people potentially or actually affected by the decision to amend Appendix EU to the Immigration Rules to include the provision that where a person has been granted limited leave to enter or remain the Secretary of State may extend that limited leave regardless of whether the person has made a valid application for such an extension.

The Home Office publishes statistics on the EU Settlement Scheme in the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release). The number of people estimated to hold pre-settled status (five years’ limited leave to enter or remain) under the scheme as of 30 June 2024 is 1,810,040. The data is available in EUSS_RA_01 Table 3 of the Immigration system statistics, EUSS summary tables (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/immigration-system-statistics-data-tables#eu-settlement-scheme).

Since September 2023, we have been extending the pre-settled status of those approaching its expiry date if they have not yet obtained settled status (indefinite leave to enter or remain). All pre-settled status holders who meet those criteria are potentially affected by the extension provision.