My second report on the EU Settlement Scheme was sent to the Home Secretary on 30 September 2019. While the data for applications, outcomes and the efficiency of the Home Office’s processes are now historic, I believe that the bulk of my findings and recommendations remain current.
The Home Office has accepted or partially accepted eight of my nine recommendations. Most of the recommendations were aimed at improving the way the Scheme operates for vulnerable and hard-to-reach individuals, and applicants who are finding the process difficult. Given the Home Office’s considerable efforts to date to make the EUSS a success, I imagined that I would be pushing at an open door. Some of the responses are less positive and constructive than I had hoped.
Ahead of the creation of a new Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA), in line with my statutory remit, I will continue to monitor and report on how the EUSS is working and make recommendations to the Home Secretary regarding what requires improvement.
While ICIBI’s detailed inspection process and reporting arrangements cannot keep pace with the roll out of the Scheme, I hope that any future reports are published more quickly, since it is in everyone’s interests that the EUSS is, and is seen to be, subject to effective independent appraisal.
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