19.These made affirmative Regulations were brought into immediate effect to amend the principal Regulations by introducing a power to designate persons by description (which allows sanctions to be applied to groups as well as individuals), and to extend the existing finance, shipping and trade sanctions relating to Crimea to the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts11 of Ukraine. The instrument also extends the prohibitions in relation to aviation and shipping to include technical assistance and resolves issues arising from other recent amendments to the principal Regulations, including the correction of errors identified by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.
20.This instrument amends the Immigration Rules in relation to people who have left Ukraine in consequence of the conflict. The changes being made deliver:
21.Under these schemes a person will be granted permission for up to 36 months with the right to work, study and access to public funds.
22.The instrument also brings forward the new Appendix Relationship with a Partner which will provide greater consistency in the way applicants prove a relationship. Initially, it applies only to the Ukraine Schemes. (HC 111812 starts to roll it out for other groups from 20 June 2022.)
23.These two instruments ensure immediate eligibility for social housing and homelessness assistance for people who have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion. SI 2022/339 enables Local Authorities in England to treat as eligible for housing and homelessness assistance anyone who has fled Ukraine having resided there before 1 January 2022, and who has been granted leave in accordance with immigration rules. The instrument also exempts British nationals and others not subject to immigration control who have fled Ukraine from the Habitual Residence Test, under which individuals usually have to show that they have been resident for at least one to three months before they are eligible for social housing and homelessness assistance. SI 2022/128 provides for an equivalent exemption from the Habitual Residence Test in Northern Ireland. Wales is legislating separately while Scotland operates a different system without equivalent eligibility requirements.
24.This instrument links in with the Statement of Changes on Immigration Rules (HC 1220), described above, in relation to schemes to assist refugees from the conflict in Ukraine.
25.To claim income-related benefits people generally need to demonstrate at least three months’ “habitual residence” and to claim disability benefits they have to also demonstrate their “past presence” in the UK for a qualifying period, usually for at least 104 out of the last 156 weeks. These Regulations exempt those who were residing in Ukraine immediately before 1 January 2022, who have left Ukraine in connection with the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022 and who have leave to remain in the UK, from those tests so that they may qualify for immediate assistance.
26.The Explanatory Memorandum did not indicate how many people are anticipated to take up these schemes, but the Department for Work and Pensions has provided the following supplementary information:
“The Home Office has set out that they estimate potentially up to 200,000 individuals may arrive in the UK from Ukraine under the Ukraine Scheme. There were also around 3,200 UK nationals understood to be in Ukraine at the start of the invasion who are also covered by these exemptions if they have decided to return to the UK.13
Assessing the potential cost of these measures is highly uncertain. This is due to the fluidity of the geopolitical situation and the duration of the current crisis and uncertainty around the numbers who will actually travel to the UK under the Ukraine Scheme and their family circumstances. That said, initial indicative estimates undertaken by DWP suggest that the cost of the measures for those arriving under the Ukraine Scheme and for returning UK Nationals could be between £100m and £200m over the period. These figures have not been subject to any scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).”
27.This instrument ensures that those who left Ukraine following the Russian invasion are exempt from the requirement to have been living in the UK for at least three months before becoming entitled to Child Benefit. This will mean they can access Child Benefit immediately from the day of their arrival. The instrument will also ensure that payments under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which provides sponsors with £350 a month for a minimum of six months if they offer a room or home to a Ukrainian national, are disregarded for the purposes of calculating entitlement to tax credits.
28.This instrument introduces tuition fee loans for students taking designated higher education (HE) short courses in a three-year trial between 1 September 2022 and 1 September 2025. The trial forms part of the pathway towards the introduction of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) from 2025 which is currently subject to consultation.14 The HE short courses in the trial will cover a range of subjects: STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), healthcare, education, digital innovation and areas that help meet Net Zero commitments. The loans taken out for short courses will fall under the Plan 2 repayment arrangements, so borrowers will be affected by the Government’s decision to maintain the repayment thresholds for Plan 2 loans at the current level for the 2022/23 financial year (see paragraphs 1 to 11 of this report).
29.The Department for Education (DfE) says that the Independent Panel Report to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding15 recommended making HE more flexible, including by providing support for shorter courses, such as modules of HE courses, and enabling people to study HE over their lifetimes. This also reflected a recommendation of the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee for a system which should “include funding for modules or credit where a full degree is not required”.16 DfE says that the evaluation of the data and insight generated by the trial will help develop the LLE. The Office for Students will publish an evaluation report at the end of the first stage of evaluation in summer 2023.
30.This instrument extends the dates until which derogations may be authorised for the use of non-organic pullets (young chickens) and non-organic gellan gum (a food additive) in organic production in Great Britain (GB). A previous derogation for pullets expired on 31 December 2020, while one for gellan gum expired on 31 December 2021. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that, as there is currently insufficient supply of organic pullets and gellan gum available to the market in GB, this instrument extends both derogations until 31 December 2022, allowing organic production to continue undisrupted while the market develops.
31.According to Defra, the derogations will not apply in Northern Ireland (NI), but this is not expected to disadvantage NI industry substantially. We asked the Department whether the derogations will impact on the export of organic eggs and organic products containing non-organic gellan gum from GB to NI where EU law continues to apply. Defra explained that:
“Exports of these products from GB to NI will still be possible, since UK organic products are recognised as equivalent under Annex 14 (Organics) of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.” Defra added that the EU has also extended the derogation for non-organic gellan gum until the end of 2022.
32.The Department also told us that there were no plans to extend the derogations further, and that it anticipated that organic gellan gum will need to be imported into GB from third countries in 2023. Asked whether the derogation for non-organic pullets would undermine organic standards for eggs, Defra explained that:
“In Great Britain, these pullets are reared to organic standards, including organic feed and veterinary requirements, whilst being housed on a non-organic holding. The derogation request requires written confirmation that the chickens have been reared to organic standards from the breeder at the point the derogation is granted. The chickens are then moved to organic holdings before they are 18 weeks old, as per the derogation granted and before laying of eggs commences.”
11 Oblast is an administrative territorial division within Russia and other former Soviet republics, including Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
12 Home Office, ‘Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 1118, 15 March 2022’ (15 March 2022): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1118–15-march-2022 [accessed 5 April 2022].
13 The Home Office publish regular figures on the numbers who have arrived under both schemes: Home Office, ‘Ukraine Family Scheme and Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme: visa data’ (7 March 2022): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukraine-family-scheme-application-data [accessed 5 April 2022].
14 Department for Education ‘Lifelong Loan Entitlement Consultation’: https://consult.education.gov.uk/lifelong-loan-entitlement/lifelong-loan-entitlement-consultation/ [accessed 5 April 2022].
15 Department for Education, ‘Post-18 review of education and funding: independent panel report’ (30 May 2019): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-18-review-of-education-and-funding-independent-panel-report [accessed 5 April 2022].
16 House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, Treating Students Fairly: The Economics of Post-School Education p.51 (Second Report, Session 2017–19, HL 139).