A scheme to support Ukranian families

This week, we launched our uncapped Homes for Ukraine scheme, allowing sponsors in the UK, who will receive £350 a month in support, to register their interest in providing homes or spare rooms for a minimum stay of six months to individual Ukrainians or Ukrainian families.

Sponsors may be individuals, institutions, charities, businesses or community groups.

Full details on how to apply may be found here – homesforukraine. campaign.gov.uk – and I hope that many of my constituents will consider doing so.

This new scheme is additional to the Ukrainian Family Scheme which allows family members of British nationals, UK settled persons and certain others to come or stay in the UK.

Those joining this fully-free scheme will be granted leave for three years to work, receive education, free healthcare and to access public funds.

It has also been streamlined – after consultation with security experts – so that Ukrainians with passports can get permission to come here online, speeding up the application process.

In addition, Ukrainians already in the UK can either extend their visa or switch to another immigration route even if their visa would not normally have allowed them to do so.

Guidance on the support available to

Ukrainian nationals and their family members can be found on my website.

As well as helping Ukrainians coming to the UK, we are providing humanitarian support to Ukraine in its time of need.

We are the largest bilateral humanitarian donor to Ukraine, with almost £400 million in aid pledged to help the Ukrainian people.

I have set up a dedicated guidance page on my website about how constituents can help.

This is being updated with all the latest information (including Ukrainianlanguage guidance) as it becomes available: andrewgriffithmp.com/ ukraine

More locally, last Friday I met Slindon Parish Council and its chairman

Jan Rees for a special tree-planting ceremony to commemorate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.

We were accompanied by village residents including Annie Forshew and John Apps – who both lived in Slindon at the time of the Coronation – so we were particularly privileged that they could join us in celebrating.

The two English oak-tree saplings (Quercus robur), from Arundel Arboretum, were planted as part of the nationwide Queens Green Canopy.

It was an honour to support the planting of Slindon’s English oak trees which will be a wonderful legacy for

The Queen and future generations of Slindon residents.