Home Secretary tells MPs that earned settlement policy will be set out later this year

Giving evidence before the Home Affairs Committee last week on the work of the Home Office, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the Government will be making decisions on its proposed 'earned settlement' policy "very soon".

Under the policy, the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) would increase from five years to 10, with a new system under which migrants would have to "earn" settlement through their contribution to the UK and by meeting a new set of requirements.

In last week's wide-ranging oral evidence session before MPs, Mahmood was asked whether the earned settlement reforms would be implemented before next year, when migrants who arrived in 2022 are due to start qualifying for settlement under the current five-year route.

The Home Secretary responded: "The earned settlement is not just for one group; it is a new model of settlement, which is about settlement being something that is earned through contribution and a new set of tests that lead to settlement. It is basically permanent residency in this country; there is no meaningful difference in day-to-day life between somebody who has indefinite leave to remain and somebody who is a British citizen, so it is right to reassess the basis on which settlement is granted. At the moment, it is effectively an automatic process based on how long you have been here. It is for a broader range than simply new arrivals.

"I am very aware that a large group of people who arrived in 2022, absent any change, would qualify in February 2027. We have to give certainty to the system. It remains the case that the rules that apply to you are the rules in force at the point of your application, not when you arrived in the country. That will continue to apply in the normal way. Later this year we will set out the new policy on settlement, taking into account all the consultation responses we have had, as well as any transitional arrangements we might decide to implement."

Asked when the new policy would be announced, Mahmood declined to give a specific date, saying: "Again, I do not want to overspeak for the Government grid and decide my own timeline."

She said the Government had received more responses to its consultation than expected and that analysing the responses and the modelling that uderpins it had taken longer.

Asked by Labour's Bell Ribeiro-Addy about how the Home Office would ensure people were aware of the changes when they came into force, Mahmood described those affected as a "highly knowledgeable cohort" who "tend to know their rules very well".

"These are policy questions to be settled on transitional arrangements and so on, but that will happen later this year and in good time before you get the first round of people qualifying who arrived in 2022, "Mahmood continued.

Ribeiro-Addy again pressed the Home Secretary on the anxiety among those who could be affected, particularly given the retrospective nature of the proposed changes.

The Home Secretary said in response: "The transitional protections are something that we specifically consulted on. There are a range of different options available for what transitional protections might look like. It is everything from passporting certain cohorts through—so no change, and they still qualify at five years—to different options for what you might do with other cohorts over a longer period. That is policy to be settled. I will obviously come to the House to inform the House of what that policy is once it is settled, and it will pass in the normal way. I am sure there will be lots of public debate, and the Home Office will make sure that those rules are clear."

Later on in the session, Labour MP Lewis Atkinson returned to the issue of earned settlement, telling the Home Secretary that migrants were not only "very informed" but also "very anxious" about the uncertainty surrounding their future status. He said he had met a family who did not feel able to "properly put down roots" because they did not know whether they would need to find another job with a visa despite having reached five years in the UK.

Atkinson asked whether this uncertainty was "hampering the integration" that the Government wanted to see.

Mahmood rejected that suggestion, saying the Government had to balance the interests of migrants with those of people already living in the UK. "I accept that there are a lot of people wondering what rules are going to apply to them. Of course there are; I hear that myself as well," she said.

The Home Secretary said the Government had taken time to consider the consultation responses and transitional arrangements, adding: "It is right that the Government have taken time to look at the consultation responses properly. We have engaged very widely on what the transitional arrangements look like and what the knock-on consequences of those arrangements will be."

She continued: "I can assure people we are trying to do a proper piece of work, where we have the right arrangements that strike the right balance between our responsibilities to people who have come here to work, our recognition of the failures that we inherited as a Government, and also our need to do right by the people who are already here and who pay for the systems that we all rely on."