Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many nationals aged (a) between 15 and 64 and (b) over 65 from each EEA country were granted permanent residence in each year from 1997-98 to 2014-15.

James Brokenshire

Under the EU law, EEA nationals (and their family members) have an initial right to reside in the UK for three months without conditions. To have a right to reside in the country longer than this the EEA national must be exercising a Treaty Right, described in the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006 as being a qualified person. To be considered a quali-fied person, they must be a jobseeker, worker, self-employed person, self-sufficient or a student. After living in the UK for a continuous period of five years in accordance with the conditions set out in the EEA Regulations, an EEA national and any family member will acquire the right of permanent residence in the UK and apply for documentation confirming this right.

The total numbers of documents certifying permanent residence by country of nationality are published in table ee_02 ‘Immigration Statistics, April-June 2015’ table ee_02 for 2004 to 2014, available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics . Corresponding data for 2015 will be published on 26 May 2016. A breakdown by age grouping is not published.

The issuing of permanent residence documents to EEA nationals commenced in April 2006 and therefore there are no statistics relating to EEA nationals available prior to that date.