IMA welcomes Cabinet Office updates to recruitment website to account for rights of late EU Settlement Scheme applicants

The Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) has welcomed changes made by the Cabinet Office to update the Civil Service nationality requirements for posts advertised via the Civil Service Jobs website. Previously, it was unclear whether EU and EEA EFTA citizens and their family members who applied to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) after its 30 June 2021 deadline were eligible to apply for roles.

Civil Service Jobs is the central recruitment website that government departments and other public bodies use to advertise vacancies. The IMA has been engaging with the Cabinet Office, which has responsibility for the site, to ensure the nationality requirements for posts advertised via the website were updated on 23 August.

Following an announcement by the Home Office in August 2021, those persons with reasonable grounds for missing the original EUSS deadline who have made a late application (and their joining family members) should have their rights protected while their applications to the scheme are being considered.

Pam Everett, Director of Operations for the IMA said:

“EU and EEA EFTA citizens and their family members with relevant rights should be able to continue their lives in the UK as they would have done before the UK left the EU. This also applies when it comes to employment.

“We are pleased that the Cabinet Office has taken action to clarify this and we will continue to work with them to ensure these citizens receive the same treatment with regards to having their rights protected.”

The Cabinet Office has confirmed the following wording will be reflected in relevant posts via the Civil Service jobs website, meaning they will be broadly open to:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status in accordance with the requirements of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS),
• nationals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before the 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service