The Rights of EU Citizens in Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 24 October 2018.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:25, 24 October 2018

Can I just echo the point that the Member has made in relation to that? It is profoundly unsatisfactory that we are having to have these kinds of conversations and, difficult though it is for us, it's immeasurably more difficult for those individual citizens whose lives are in limbo, in some senses, because of a lack of long-term clarity around some of these areas.

The Government did welcome the phase 1 agreement on citizens' rights in the draft withdrawal agreement, and the Member will be aware that in June of this year, the UK Government published the EU settlement statement of intent, and she's mentioned people working in the higher education sector—in October, the Home Office agreed to extend its private beta-testing phase of that settlement scheme to Wales, to include higher education institutions, the social care sector and the NHS.

There's been an ongoing dialogue between the Welsh Government and the UK Government in relation to both the settlement scheme in general—. We have concerns, which we've expressed forcibly, in relation to the prospect of several thousands, perhaps, not being able to take advantage of that scheme because of, perhaps, vulnerability or because they may be hard-to-reach groups, and the inadequacy of the communications around that. But in particular, in relation to the pilot scheme, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance has made specific representations to the UK Government. We are unhappy that that scheme is open only to individuals and not to their families. We think that is disrespectful and it's also undermining of family life and, indeed, perhaps, even the intention of the scheme itself. We're also concerned about the lack of a statutory appeals mechanism in that, and, I dare say, there are people holding off engaging with that scheme until they can have a greater certainty that their families will be encompassed within it and that they'll be able to access an appeals process.

So, there are many points of concern that we continue to press with the UK Government in relation to this, and she'll be aware, of course, that this relates, if I may put it like this, to the immediate plans. We still have a lack of clarity about the long-term plans and we know very clearly in Wales that we need migration into Wales to support our public services and our economy.