To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much time the online EU Settlement Scheme platform has spent undergoing maintenance which prevents the completion of applications since that service was launched.

The EUSS fully launched on 30 March following almost 5 months of successful beta testing. The Scheme will remain open until 2021 so there is no rush to apply.

The Home Office is committed to continuously improving the application process based on applicant feedback. To this end, we have and will continue to make frequent upgrades to the service to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme remains as user friendly and performant as possible.

We try to minimise the disruption to applicants by keeping maintenance windows as short as possible and by making changes during quiet periods, often during the night or early morning where there is little or no applicant activity. So far, Applications to EUSS have been unavailable to applicants due to maintenance for less than 2 hours in total since EUSS fully launched on 30 March.

Customers impacted by any disruption to their applications will be directed to the Settlement Resolution Centre to help resolve these issues