Policy paper

Factsheet 1: overview

Updated 21 December 2018

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

What does the Bill do?

Prime Minister, Theresa May, 2 March 2018:

We are clear that as we leave the EU, free movement of people will come to an end and we will control the number of people who come to live in our country.

The government introduced the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill in the House of Commons on 20 December.

Following the result of the EU referendum in June 2016, the Queen’s Speech on 21 June 2017 announced an Immigration Bill as one of the Bills needed to ensure the UK makes a success of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Parliament passed the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which ensures that, as far as possible, the same rules and laws will apply on the day after Exit as on the day before, including the EU’s rules on free movement of persons. This is to avoid a cliff edge where the law is uncertain when the UK leaves the EU. Parliament must then decide what the future rules and law will be.

The Bill will end the EU’s rules on free movement of persons into the UK and make EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members subject to UK immigration controls. This means they will require permission to enter and remain in the UK (see Factsheet 2 for more detailed information).

Without the Bill, EEA and Swiss nationals would be able to continue to live and work in the UK in accordance with retained EU law on free movement of people.

By ending free movement of persons, the Bill will enable us to deliver the future immigration system. It does not set out the details of the future immigration system because those details, such as the requirements a person must meet to come to the UK as a worker, student or family member, will, as now, be set out in the Immigration Rules.

The Immigration Rules enable the future immigration system to meet UK objectives, command the confidence of the public and reflect the wider economic, social and political context and enable the government to control the number of people coming to live, work or study in the UK. The future immigration rules will also take into account any future agreement we reach with the EU or with other countries. You can read more about the future immigration system in the UK’s future skills-based immigration system white paper.

Since the 1920s, British and Irish citizens have enjoyed a status in each other’s state, distinct from that later enjoyed because of free movement. This status existed prior to the UK’s membership of the EU, and gives effect to the particularly strong historical, economic and cultural links between the UK and Ireland. The Bill respects and upholds this. It protects the status of Irish citizens in the UK when free movement rights end by ensuring that Irish citizens will not require permission to enter or remain in the UK after the UK leaves the EU, unless they are subject to a deportation order, exclusion or an international travel ban, as now. See Factsheet 3 for more detailed information on protecting Irish citizens.

The Bill will also give Ministers powers to modify primary or secondary legislation as appropriate in consequence of, or in connection with, the Bill. This is a usual provision which enables us to ensure that UK legislation is coherent once the UK has exited the EU and EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members become subject to UK immigration law. It will also enable us to align our existing immigration laws for EEA and Swiss nationals with those for non-EEA nationals to the extent we wish to do so, and depending on the final agreement about the future immigration system. The amendments will be made by statutory instruments under the powers in the Bill and will need to have passed through the appropriate parliamentary procedures. See Factsheet 4 for more detailed information on the consequential power.

The Bill will also enable the UK to respond to its withdrawal from the EU and the outcome of negotiations by making changes to social security arrangements. It will allow the Government and, where appropriate, a devolved authority to implement new benefit rules for EEA and Swiss nationals in the UK. See Factsheet 5 for more detailed information the social security aspects of the Bill.

What is free movement of people?

The free movement of people is one of the four ‘freedoms’ which together underpin the EU’s Single Market. Free movement extends to the members of the EEA (the EU and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and Swiss nationals and their family members and enables them to:

• be admitted to the UK and reside in the UK for an initial period of three months
• reside in the UK as a ‘qualified person’, such as a jobseeker, worker, self-employed person, self-sufficient person like a retiree or homemaker, or student, for as long as they have that status
• have the right to permanent residence in the UK if, for example, they have resided in the UK under free movement regulations for 5 years

Extent

Immigration is a reserved matter and the immigration provisions in the Bill apply to the whole of the UK. The Bill includes provision to enable the provisions of and amendments made by the immigration aspects of the Bill to be extended to the Crown Dependencies and the British overseas territories.

The Bill will not make any changes to the Common Travel Area arrangements between the UK and Ireland and the Crown Dependencies.

Some aspects of social security are devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland. The social security co-ordination aspects of the Bill confer powers on the Scottish and Northern Irish ministers in respect of matters within devolved competence. The social security co-ordination power is expressed as exercisable by “an appropriate authority”, defined as being the Secretary of State or the Treasury, a devolved authority, or a Minister of the Crown acting jointly with a devolved authority.

Commencement

As is usual the provisions of the Bill (other than the interpretation and extent and commencement clauses) will be commenced by regulations.