Councillor Andrew Joy, Hampshire County Council’s Executive Member for Communities, Partnerships and External Affairs, said: “These latest figures show an increase of 13% from December and mean than 69% of Hampshire’s 43,000 EU citizens have signed up to the scheme which is very encouraging.”
The EU Settlement Scheme is designed to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK. It involves an online registration process, which has been designed specifically to enable those EU citizens, already lawfully based in the UK, to remain living and working in the UK after 30 June 2021. The latest figures are those of 31 March 2020.
Councillor Joy continued: “Those Hampshire’s EU residents who have not yet applied to the scheme, and wish to do so, still have time to register. I would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate that we consider these residents part of the Hampshire ‘family’ – who are greatly valued.”
Support and advice is available for those needing help with the online form or assistance with complex cases at the Citizens Advice Bureau. Citizens Advice Bureau Southampton has been funded by the Home Office to provide an EUSS support service to help vulnerable people in the region, and the Southampton Registration Service is offering an ID scanning service. Guidance about how to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme is set out on the Government's webpage.
