I am pleased that in his first appearance at the dispatch box ("I am going to make Britain the greatest place on Earth" DT26/7/19) new PM Boris Johnson is still sticking to his earlier promise to the Polish community and to other EU citizens to guarantee their rights after Brexit and, to be fair, he has been consistent about this since the referendum campaign.
However he must be aware that promises are one thing and reality another. The take up of the new settled status is still proceeding slowly as only a fifth of the 3.2 million EU citizens have registered so far. For many less IT-savvy EU citizens with poor knowledge of English the registration process is daunting and many Polish citizens in particular are still unaware of the vital need to register to stay. As nobody wants these people to be left stranded by Brexit the Government needs to include the currently agreed procedures for settled status in a new Immigration Bill to be prepared in the eventuality that his Brexit bid is successful and to prevent a new minister or civil servant changing that policy.. Furthermore Mr Johnson should ensure that the registration of EU citizens, many of them living and working here for more than thirty years, should merely be declaratory and not,, as at present, a new application and also a final hard copy certificate of their registration should be issued rather than the current online confirmation that many employers and landlords find difficult to download.
