Queen's Speech December 2019 - Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill

Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill

“A modern, fair, points-based immigration system will welcome skilled workers from across the world to contribute to the United Kingdom’s economy, communities and public services.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• ●  Bring an end to free movement in UK law, to ensure that the Government can deliver a new Australian-style points-based immigration system from 2021.

• ●  Make EU citizens arriving from 2021 subject to the same UK immigration controls as non-EU citizens, to enable the Government to deliver a single global immigration system based on people’s skills.

• ●  Protect the long-standing immigration status of Irish citizens when free movement ends.

• ●  Enable the Government to deliver future changes to social security co- ordination policy.

  The main benefits of the Bill would be:

  • ●  Paving the way for a new points-based immigration system, which will be based on people’s skills and contributions to the UK, so that we attract the brightest and best people from the whole world following the UK’s departure from the EU.

  • ●  Ensuring that the UK can set new rules on access to benefits and social security co-ordination that are in the national interest, including the ability to align the entitlement of EU citizens arriving after January 2021 to access taxpayer funded benefits with that of non-EU citizens.

    The main elements of the Bill are:

    • ●  Ending the free movement of EU citizens under UK law.

    • ●  The power to align the treatment of EU citizens with non-EU citizens from 2021.

    • ●  The power to make changes to the current rules for access to benefits and social security co-ordination.

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Territorial extent and application

● The Bill’s provisions would extend and apply to the whole of the UK. Immigration policy is a reserved matter, with some social security policy devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Wider measures

• ●  In addition to the Immigration Bill, the Government will create visa schemes for new migrants who will fill shortages in our public services, including a fast- track NHS scheme. We will also increase the annual quota for the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme we are piloting from 2,500 to 10,000.

• ●  Our new immigration system will require new arrivals to contribute to the funding of the NHS and we will increase the health surcharge, for those staying in the UK for more than six months, to ensure it covers the full cost of use.

  Key facts

• ●  The Home Secretary has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (the MAC) to consider points-based systems, including the Australian immigration system and other international comparators. The MAC is due to report in January 2020.

• ●  Developing and reinforcing UK immigration controls and ending free movement will give the Government greater control to reduce the overall number of migrants coming to the UK, with fewer lower skilled migrants. Our new single system will allocate points on a range of criteria in three broad categories and it will be focused on skills and talents, not nationality:

  • ○  Migrants who have received world-leading awards or otherwise demonstrated exceptional talent and sponsored entrepreneurs setting up a new business or investors.

  • ○  Skilled workers who meet the criteria of the points-based system and have a job offer.

  • ○  Sector-specific workers who enter on schemes for low-skilled work, youth mobility or short-term visits. These provide no route to permanent settlement and will be revised on an ongoing basis based on expert advice from the MAC.

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• ●  We will outline further details of a new immigration and border system in due course.

• ●  The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill will include measures to ensure that resident European citizens, who have built their lives in, and contributed so much to, the United Kingdom, have the right to remain.

• ●  There are an estimated 3.4 million EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, and their family members, living in the UK.

• ●  The Government is delivering certainty to these individuals through the EU Settlement Scheme which has been established in Immigration Rules made under the Immigration Act 1971.

• ●  The EU Settlement Scheme is working well: Home Office figures show that by the end of November, nearly 2.6 million applications have been made and over 2.2 million people have been granted status under UK law.

• ●  The UK immigration status granted under the Scheme guarantees that EU citizens and their family members can carry on with their lives here broadly as before we left the EU.

• ●  For Irish citizens, there will be no change to their rights to freely enter and live in the UK. Restrictions will continue to exist as they do now if they are subject to a deportation order, exclusion order or international travel ban.