Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what factors they will consider specifically in respect of (1) criminal records, (2) public safety and security, and (3) being conducive to the public good, when undertaking their assessment of which EEA citizens will be migrated from pre-settled to settled status in the next 12 months under changes to the EU Settlement Scheme.

The Home Office is introducing a new process to automatically convert eligible pre-settled status holders to settled status, without the need for them to make a further EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) application. This process reduces the burden on thousands of individuals and supports our ambition to ensure people have the right EUSS status.

To convert a pre-settled status holder to settled status, the Home Office will conduct automated checks against tax and benefit records to confirm they have been continuously resident in the UK for five years or more. Criminality checks will also be made to ensure status holders meet the existing suitability requirements of the EUSS. These automated checks are the same checks that are undertaken when a person makes an application to the EUSS and have been conducted since the scheme opened to ensure EUSS status is only granted to those who are eligible for it.

The most recent estimate of the number of people holding pre-settled status under the EUSS is 1.7 million. However, the number of pre-settled status holders who could automatically be converted to settled status under the Home Office's automation plans is contingent upon customer behaviour which is difficult to predict.