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Written Question
Refugees: Families
Tuesday 2nd May 2023

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on concluding the application process for a family reunion visa with reference GWF062464506.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

This visa application is currently under consideration.


Written Question
Earthquakes: Turkey
Tuesday 2nd May 2023

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made additional resources available for processing visa applications impacted by the earthquakes in Turkey.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

By working with TLS, the commercial partner, we are continuing to provide access to Visa Application Centres (VAC) throughout Turkey. Adana VAC increased its opening days from 3 to 5 days a week to meet demand closest to the earthquake area. There are also VACs in Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Istanbul, and Izmir, many of which continue to provide 5 day a week capacity for those looking to apply for a UK visa under one of our current visit, family, work and study routes and enable those who have already applied to submit their biometrics.

UKVI will aim to process any compassionate cases as quickly as possible in line with current guidance.

Should individual circumstances require a quicker decision, applicants should raise this with visa application centre staff when submitting their biometrics and UKVI will consider this as part of their wider application.

If applicants have an existing visa application and have been impacted by the earthquake, then they should please contact the UKVI Contact Centre, details can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk.


Written Question
Immigration: Scotland
Monday 20th March 2023

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of her immigration policies on the (a) population of and (b) labour market in Scotland.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The UK’s immigration system enables individuals to enter UK for work purposes from all parts of the world where they have a suitable job offer and meet our criteria. This is helping fill skills gaps, boosting our economy and through specific visa offers, such as the Health and Care visa, supporting our public services.

There is no compelling argument that Scotland should have a different immigration system to the rest of the UK. Indeed it’s economy benefits from the simplicity and clarity of having one single system for our country. Scotland’s economically active rate is closely aligned with UK average. Minor variations are accounted for in the Scotland specific Shortage Occupation List.


Written Question
Refugees: Families
Monday 30th January 2023

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average processing times are for Refugee Family Reunion applications outside the rules.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

All applications for refugee family reunion are made on the same visa application form. It is only when an application has been considered that it can be established whether the application falls within the criteria of the Rules or not.

Information regarding processing times is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

We are committed to improving and speeding up processing times for family reunion applications. We are reviewing processes to streamline decision making to enable us to provide a better service to our customers. We always prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.


Written Question
Refugees: Families
Monday 30th January 2023

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average processing times are for Refugee Family Reunion applications inside the rules.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

All applications for refugee family reunion are made on the same visa application form. It is only when an application has been considered that it can be established whether the application falls within the criteria of the Rules or not.

Information regarding processing times is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

We are committed to improving and speeding up processing times for family reunion applications. We are reviewing processes to streamline decision making to enable us to provide a better service to our customers. We always prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.


Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Friday 25th November 2022

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made to conclude visa application GWF066655972 lodged on 1 September 2022.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

This visa application is currently under consideration.


Written Question
Visas: Applications
Friday 25th November 2022

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to expedite visa applications when there is a known imminent threat to life of the applicant.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

UKVI will expedite all cases where there is a compassionate need to do so including where an individual may face a threat to their life due to a medical emergency.


Written Question
Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons asylum seekers would be held at Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre.

Answered by Simon Baynes

Migrants, including asylum claimants, may be detained for immigration purposes only in accordance with Home Office detention policy, as set out in the Detention General Instructions, and in accordance with the adults at risk in immigration detention policy. The detention decision must always be made on the basis of the individual’s particular circumstances and eligibility for detention. If at any time it is concluded that a particular detained individual’s ongoing detention would not be appropriate, the individual must be released, with bail conditions appropriate to their particular circumstances.

Most people detained under immigration powers spend only short periods in detention. In the year ending June 2022, data shows that the overwhelming majority of people (98%) who left detention were detained for less than 6 months, and 82% were detained for 28 days or less.  The great majority of asylum claims are processed in the non-detained system, with claimants living in the community. Only a small minority of claimants are detained whilst their claim is considered.


Written Question
Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what average time was for asylum seekers to be held at Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Simon Baynes

The Home Office publishes statistics on people in detention on the last day of each quarter and on people leaving detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.

Data on people in detention are published in table Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed tables’, where the data can be broken down by current place of detention (including Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre (IRC)), nationality (which may differ from country of origin), and length of detention.

Data on people leaving detention are published in table Det_D03 of the ‘Detention detailed tables’, where the data can be broken down by length of detention. Data on last place of detention are published in table Det_04c of the ‘Detention summary tables’, including Dungavel IRC.

Data on people in detention and leaving detention broken down by asylum and non-asylum related detainees are published in table Det_01 of the ‘Detention summary tables’. The latest data relate to the end of June 2022.

Data on people in detention counts the number of people in detention on the last day of the period (e.g. 31 December).

Last place of detention does not show where an individual spent their time in detention. In some cases, an individual may have spent a period of time detained elsewhere before being moved to their last place of detention.

Asylum-related cases refer to those where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior or during detention. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but detained for other reasons (such as criminality).

Figures on people in detention and leaving detention at the end of September 2022 will be published on 24 November 2022. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.


Written Question
Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the countries of origin are of asylum seekers held at Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre as on 2 September 2022.

Answered by Simon Baynes

The Home Office publishes statistics on people in detention on the last day of each quarter and on people leaving detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.

Data on people in detention are published in table Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed tables’, where the data can be broken down by current place of detention (including Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre (IRC)), nationality (which may differ from country of origin), and length of detention.

Data on people leaving detention are published in table Det_D03 of the ‘Detention detailed tables’, where the data can be broken down by length of detention. Data on last place of detention are published in table Det_04c of the ‘Detention summary tables’, including Dungavel IRC.

Data on people in detention and leaving detention broken down by asylum and non-asylum related detainees are published in table Det_01 of the ‘Detention summary tables’. The latest data relate to the end of June 2022.

Data on people in detention counts the number of people in detention on the last day of the period (e.g. 31 December).

Last place of detention does not show where an individual spent their time in detention. In some cases, an individual may have spent a period of time detained elsewhere before being moved to their last place of detention.

Asylum-related cases refer to those where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior or during detention. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but detained for other reasons (such as criminality).

Figures on people in detention and leaving detention at the end of September 2022 will be published on 24 November 2022. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.