Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of recent changes to residency requirements for free access to the NHS on UK citizens working as missionaries overseas.

Jane Ellison

Entitlement to free National Health Service hospital treatment is based on ‘ordinary residence’ in the United Kingdom, which means, broadly, living here on a lawful and properly settled basis for the time being, whether of long or short duration. The Immigration Act 2014, Section 39, revises the ordinary residence test so that non-European Economic Area (EEA) migrants subject to immigration control cannot be considered ordinarily resident in the UK unless they also have the immigration status of indefinite leave to remain. It is expected that Section 39 will be commenced this spring. UK and EEA nationals, including those working as missionaries overseas, will not be affected by this revision.