PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Immigration: EU Nationals (9 June 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that eligible citizens in Enfield North constituency apply to the EU Settlement Scheme by the 30 June 2021 deadline.

Asked by:
Feryal Clark (Labour)

Since the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) opened in March 2019, the Home Office has undertaken a broad range of communications and stakeholder engagement activity to encourage EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to apply for and obtain status. This has included targeted stakeholder engagement to reach hard to reach and vulnerable communities across the UK.

Almost £8m has been spent on comprehensive, multi-channel EUSS advertising to increase awareness of the need to apply to EUSS for over two years. The current campaign is live across the UK, targeting EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their families.

The Home Office has also specifically engaged with stakeholders in vulnerable, harder to reach audiences including older people, children and those in care to ensure as many citizens as possible apply to EUSS by the deadline.

The Home Office has made available £22 million in funding for a network of now 72 organisations which includes charities, local authorities and community groups whose collective reach and influence extends broadly across the UK. They are helping vulnerable and harder to reach groups in applying to the EUSS

The Home Office is also working closely with other government departments, including the Department for Work & Pensions, Department for Health and Social Care, and the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government to ensure local authorities and other public sector bodies promote EUSS.

As of 31 May 2021, 5.61m EUSS applications had been received and 5.27m grants of status had been made. The Home Office urges anyone eligible for the EUSS to apply before the 30 June deadline to ensure their rights are protected following the end of the grace period.

Answered by:
Kevin Foster (Conservative)
15 June 2021