Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Skilled Worker visas were live as of 20 October 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office has re-allocated resources following the conclusion of the seasonal student visa application surge and recruited additional staff to deal with the extremely high demand. As a result, we expect the time taken to assess a skilled work visa application continues to reduce.
The Home Office publishes data on visas in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release(opens in a new tab)’. Data on the number of applications and granted applications of the Skilled Worker visa are published in tables Vis_D01 and Vis_D02 of the entry clearance visas applications and outcomes(opens in a new tab) dataset, respectively.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to improve (a) transparency and (b) communication in the application system for spouse, fiancé, and unmarried partner visas.
Answered by Kevin Foster
UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) continues to prioritise Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine, so applications for family visa routes are taking longer to process. In addition, we continue to see unpredictable levels of demand across all visa routes globally following the easing of international travel restrictions.
UKVI are committed to providing customers with information on global visa processing times, and will continue to provide updates on the Visa decision waiting times page on GOV.UK and via our commercial partners’ websites. Spouse, fiancé, and unmarried partner applicants have been informed of extended processing times via email. Customers are encouraged to consider the information on processing times before booking travel to the UK.
UKVI transparency data is published at regular intervals and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the 24-week processing time for spouse, fiancé, and unmarried partner visas to its original 12-week service standard.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is currently prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Staff from other government departments, including DWP and HMRC, are being surged into the Home Office to help with Ukraine work and enable normal visa routes to return to normal service levels in due course.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of changing without notice the service standard for spouse visa applications from 12 to 24 weeks on applicants.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is currently prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Applicants were informed of the change to a 24-week service standard on 11 May 2022 and the department is currently operating within this.
Staff from other government departments, including DWP and HMRC, are being surged into the Home Office to help with Ukraine work and enable normal visa routes to return to normal service levels in due course.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how his Department estimated the new 24-week processing time for spouse, fiancé, and unmarried partner visas; and what assessment she has made of the likelihood of that timeframe being met in the context of providing reliability for applicants.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The 24-week service standard is based on expected processing times due to the increased number of outstanding spouse, fiancé, and unmarried partner visa applications. This increase was due to the prioritisation of Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Processing times for the 24-week service standard have not yet been published. They will be published as part of transparency data in due course. The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) spouse, (b) fiancé and (c) unmarried partner visa applications remain unprocessed for more than 12 weeks as of 8 June 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Processing times for Marriage & Family visa applications as of 8 June 2022 have not yet been published. They will be published as part of transparency data in due course.
The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to speed up the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in the UK who are receiving ongoing medical treatment.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial support the Government is providing to refugees arriving in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The department have not made any assessment of the potential merits of extending the £350 per month thank you payment to refugees arriving in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme as this is a matter for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Nationals of Ukraine coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme will be given access to work, benefits and public services as laid down in the Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine, details of which can be found at:
Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine Scheme - Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the £350 per month payment to refugees arriving in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The department have not made any assessment of the potential merits of extending the £350 per month thank you payment to refugees arriving in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme as this is a matter for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Nationals of Ukraine coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme will be given access to work, benefits and public services as laid down in the Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine, details of which can be found at:
Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine Scheme - Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to safeguard and promote the welfare of refugee children arriving from Ukraine.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We recognise the deeply troubling circumstances faced by all Ukrainians who are caught up in this conflict, including unaccompanied minors, and the role many countries will need to play to safeguard those children. With respect to UK charities we are aware of a significant interest in assisting Ukrainian children.
Safeguarding and protection of these vulnerable children is paramount. It will generally be in the best interests of a child to reunite with their family members in the first instance. This is also the position of the Ukrainian Government. We have held a number of discussions with leading international organisations who are working hard to ensure appropriate processes are put in place to process and safeguard unaccompanied minors who are fleeing Ukraine.
The Ukraine Family Scheme (UFS) provides an immediate pathway for those Ukrainians, including unaccompanied minors, with family already settled in the UK to come to our country. The relevant safeguarding checks will be performed as part of the application process. The UFS is designed to allow as many people as possible to come to Britain and gives them immediate access to the support they need.
The routes and visa changes which we have announced so far follow extensive engagement with the Ukrainian Government to ensure they respond directly to their needs and asks. We will continue to work closely with them going forward.
We are committed to working with local government to ensure appropriate arrangements are in place, particularly for any unaccompanied children who may arrive and for whom there is no option of being reunited with extended family. The UK already has well established policies in this area for looked after migrant children.