PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Immigration: EU Nationals (6 December 2017)

The Prime Minister has proposed that there should be an Implementation Period immediately after the UK leaves the EU, while we and the EU put in place the necessary preparations for the future arrangements, and to ensure that people and businesses only have to plan for one set of changes. During this time, EU citizens will continue to be able to come and live and work in the UK. But there will be a registration system - an essential preparation for the new regime.

There are a wide range of options as to how EU migration might work after that Period. We are considering these options very carefully and we will take decisions based on evidence. As part of this, on 27 July, the Government commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to gather evidence on patterns of EU migration and the role of migration in the wider economy, ahead of our exit from the EU. We have asked the MAC to report by September 2018 and flagged that interim reports throughout the period would be helpful to our input into our developing policies.

The Government will be setting out initial proposals for our future immigration arrangements shortly.