Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when vulnerable female Afghan nationals sheltering in Tehran, and other cities and countries outside Afghanistan, will be able to access the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), the UK will relocate up to 20,000 people at risk. It will prioritise those who have stood up for values such as democracy and women’s rights in Afghanistan, as well as vulnerable groups, including ethnic and religious minorities. This will include some of those who arrived in the UK under the evacuation programme, which prioritised individuals who were considered to be at particular risk – including women’s rights activists, prosecutors and journalists.
The scheme is not yet open and remains under development. Further information on the eligibility, prioritisation and referral of people for the ACRS is set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2021 to Question Visas on Visas, whether (a) priority and (b) super priority visa services have been fully reinstated in the UK for (i) in-country routes, (ii) study routes and (iii) applications for indefinite leave to remain; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Super Priority and Priority services have been reinstated in the UK for Work and Study routes, including applications for Indefinite Leave to Remain.
It is anticipated these services for Marriage and Settlement routes in the UK will be reinstated by the end of March 2021.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of whether the 10 working days target for the issuance of the Biometric Residence Permit to EU citizens residing in the UK is being met; what assessment she has made of the average time taken to issue such permits in the most recent period for which figures are available; what steps her Department is taking to improve the process to issue such permits in order to meet that target; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
UVKI does not hold figures relating to the number of customers who received their BRP within 10 working days. However, it does have service level agreements with its production provider the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) and its secure delivery provider FedEx.
The DVLA have a target of producing 90% of BRPs within 24 hours of receiving the production request and 100% within 48 hours. For the financial year 1 April 2020 to 12 March 2021 DVLA were achieving 71.5% BRPs produced within 24 hours, 97.7% within 48 hours and 2.3% took longer than 48 hours to produce, all of which were produced within 72 hours and was due to a production problem experienced during October 2020. Since October no BRPs have taken longer than 48 hours to produce.
UKVI meets with DVLA weekly to monitor performance. The impacts of Covid-19 restrictions and safe working practices have reduced staffing capacity within the production site and contributed to the delays experienced.
FedEx has a target to attempt first delivery for 99% of BRPs within 48 working hours of collection of the BRP from DVLA. FedEx have recently provided revised data which indicates they have attempted first time delivery within 48 hours for 99.2% of BRPs between 1 July 2020 and end of February 2021.
FedEx has a detailed improvement plan in place, and UKVI meet with them at least twice a week to progress actions within the plan. We are confident we will see improvements in service as they are implemented.