Secretary of State for the Home Department (): On 31 December 2020, freedom of movement between the
United Kingdom and the European Union ended. The UK’s new
points-based immigration system is now in place and receiving
applications. This was a significant milestone which delivered on
a key HM Government commitment to the British people to take back
control of our borders and put in place an immigration system
which works in the interests of our whole United Kingdom.
However, this only marked the beginning of a wider programme of
change to radically transform the operation of our border and
immigration system.
In March I set out our plans to fix our broken asylum system and
build a fair, but also firm, system for dealing with humanitarian
protection claims and illegal migration through this Government’s
New Plan for Immigration.
Today I am laying before the House a command paper (CP 441)
setting out our New Plan for Immigration for legal migration and
border control. Together both papers provide a complete picture
of the Government's plan to take back control of our borders and
immigration system.
Building on the success of the EU Settlement Scheme and the
points-based system, over the next four years we will implement
further reforms to bring more radical changes and benefits to the
way all individuals cross the border and come to the UK. This
will support the Plan for Growth and two strands of the
Government’s Build Back Better agenda; to Build Back Safer by
securing the UK border and ensuring compliance with a new system
of controlled immigration, and to Build Back Stronger by
supporting the UK’s domestic labour market and attracting the
brightest and best global talent to the UK to live, work and
study.
The strategy statement I have published today sets out our
programme for 2021 and 2022. This includes: further reform to the
points-based system, a new graduate visa, new routes to attract
top talent to the UK, and a new international sportsperson route
alongside further simplification of our Immigration Rules to
streamline our systems and reduce complexity. We will also be
improving the user experience by implementing digital solutions,
removing paper from the process and reducing the need to attend
application centres. This will lay the groundwork for the full
transformation of the border and immigration system in the coming
years.
It also outlines our vision for the border and immigration system
beyond 2022, with this next phase of our programme being truly
transformational for everyone using our systems and crossing the
UK border, implementing major elements of HM Government’s
published 2025 UK Border Strategy.
We are moving away from a complex system reliant on people
proving their rights through physical documents, sometimes
decades old, to a streamlined system which is digital by default.
Our goal is to achieve this by the end of 2024. This will make
the system quicker, easier and in some cases safer for people
applying to come to the UK and proving their rights when in the
UK.
Through upstream transformation to our border and immigration
system we will also improve our ability to know more about people
before they reach the UK border. We will introduce an Electronic
Travel Authorisation scheme as part of a wider universal
permission to travel requirement for everyone wishing to travel
to the UK (except British and Irish citizens). This will support
us in our ambition to be global leaders in providing a
streamlined and seamless customer experience.
This is an ambitious programme to deliver a world leading border
and immigration system. The plans set out in the strategy
statement are essential if we are to have a border and
immigration system which will attract highly skilled people,
whilst also strengthening the security of our United Kingdom.
