Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2023 to Question 158848 on Home Office: Consultants, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of spending on consultants in the previous five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Home Office publishes its Annual Reports and Accounts which are available on gov.uk at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Pg 107 of the 21/22 report sets out how we assure consultancy spend:
Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to decrease processing times for limited leave to remain applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
UK Visas and Immigration are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas and for applications made inside the UK.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of people who have applied for indefinite leave to remain after completing the 10-year route based on their family or private life, since 2012.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The data requested is not available in a reportable format.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of people who are expected to apply for indefinite leave to remain after completing the 10-year route based on their family or private life in the next five years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The data requested is not available in a reportable format.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March 2023 to Question 174420 on Migrant Workers: Exploitation, if she will set a target to meet the International Labour Organisation standard of 1 labour inspector per 10,000 workers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
At this stage, we will not set a target of labour market inspectors. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) is a regulatory, law enforcement and compliance body charged with preventing, detecting, and tackling labour exploitation across the UK. We work closely with all enforcement bodies, including the GLAA, to ensure the effectiveness and impact of their activities, regardless the number of labour market inspectors.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2023 to Question 164009, for what reasons the information is not held in a reportable format.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not collect or report this information, and the information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the urgent queries email of 21 February 2023 from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton on Hamza Shafique.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office replied to the hon. Member on 1 March 2023.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the urgent queries email of 20 February 2023 from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton on Hassan Raofi.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office contacted the hon. Member on 17 April 2023 to request a copy of this correspondence and will reply as a priority.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons her department does not have a fee waiver for applications for indefinite leave to remain; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a fee waiver for applications for indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The right to stay indefinitely is one of the most valuable entitlements offered for those seeking to enter or remain in the UK, and it is right that the fee should be higher than most for migrants staying temporarily in the UK.
A grant of indefinite leave to remain is not necessary to enable people to remain in the UK on the basis of their Article 8 or other ECHR rights, as these can be met through a grant of limited leave to remain. The provision of an affordability-based waiver for limited leave on family and private life routes allows an individual or family to remain here lawfully, and to then apply for settlement and pay the fee when the funds become available. As such, there are no plans to waive the fee for indefinite leave to remain.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the 2012 expansion of the 10-year route to settlement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Those who meet all eligibility and specified evidential requirements of the Family Immigration Rules are granted on a five-year route to settlement (granted in two periods of 30 months, with a third application for indefinite leave to remain). Those who cannot or do not meet these requirements, or seek to rely on their private life, instead have a 10 year route to settlement (granted in four periods of 30 months, with a fifth application for indefinite leave to remain). This reflects our obligations under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The 10 year route provides additional time for those applicants to better integrate into British society by being able to achieve an appropriate knowledge of the English language which, in turn, will enable them to obtain employment and take a full and active part in their community.
We are in the process of simplifying the immigration system, including the 10 year routes to settlement. As part of this simplification the impact of existing policies will be taken into account.