On 11 June the Home Office published its official reply to the Independent Monitoring Authority’s inquiry into decision-making delays under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). The response rejects claims of systemic delay, pointing out that 99 % of 8.9 million applications lodged since 2018 have been decided and that most outstanding cases are recent status-upgrade requests. Nevertheless, the department accepted recommendations to improve case-routing and evidence requests, and pledged better data sharing with police forces to speed criminality checks – a pain-point for employers awaiting right-to-work confirmation for EU hires. The Home Office declined to gather additional equalities data, arguing the IMA had not established disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups. For HR teams the key reassurance is that applicants retain the right to work via their digital certificate while a decision is pending – but sponsors should remind managers to use the online right-to-work service rather than physical documents. The IMA will review implementation in December; if progress stalls, it could escalate to the Joint UK-EU committee. Given that 1.3 million people still hold time-limited ‘pre-settled’ status, any bottlenecks would have wide labour-market effects. Mobility advisers should track the promised automation of status-upgrades, which could reduce admin for both employers and individuals.
Source: GOV.UK – Home Office
