Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the length of time an English language test pass is valid for a visa application, in the context of passport application delays.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
We do not have any current plans to extend the length of time for which a Secure English Language Test (SELT) result is valid for the purpose of a visa application. It is important that people show they have the level of English required to work, study and integrate in the UK. An accurate and reliable SELT process ensures that people coming to work and study have the skills they need to complete the activity they are coming to the UK to undertake. Applicants can rely on the test result for 2 years from the date of the test, and can choose when they take the test before making their visa application.
As part of our work to simplify the immigration rules, we have extended the ways an applicant can prove their English language ability other than providing a valid SELT certificate. They can now meet the language requirement by:
Applicants also now only have to prove their language ability once, and can rely on having met the requirement in a previous visa application for future applications.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 28 June 2022 to Question 23755 on Central Africa: Armed Conflict and 26 July 2022 to Question 30051 on Asylum: Rwanda, and in the context of the need to deescalate ethnic hate speech and violence occurring in the central African region, what metrics her Department used to determine Rwanda as a safe country for (a) refugees as outlined by her Department's response to Question 30051 and (b) other refugees fleeing central Africa.
Answered by Simon Baynes
Rwanda has been recognised globally for their record in welcoming and integrating migrants and asylum seekers, and our own comprehensive assessment found it to be generally a safe and secure country.
The factors considered to form our assessment are outlined in our published ‘Review of asylum processing, Rwanda: assessment’ which is available on Gov.Uk.
Any decision to relocate a person to Rwanda will be made on a case-by-case basis taking into account their individual circumstances and relevant country information.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential risks for individuals applying for UK refugee status who are transferred to Rwanda under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership of (a) arbitrary detention by Rwandan security services and (b) forced recruitment into either non-state actor or state actor armed organisations; and if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of that matter.
Answered by Simon Baynes
People who are relocated to Rwanda under the Migration and Economic Development will not be detained. Rwanda will process their asylum claims in accordance with national and international human rights laws, and will ensure their protection from inhuman and degrading treatment or being returned to the place they originally fled.
Rwanda is a safe country with a track record of providing opportunities for refugees. Those relocated will be given all the support they need, with accommodation, food, healthcare, and help to integrate into the local community. They will be free to come and go.
This Partnership will be underpinned by a monitoring system put in place to ensure that the scheme is successfully relocating people to Rwanda to rebuild their lives and their welfare needs are being adequately addressed.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 removing fees for priority passport services when individuals have already waited beyond the stated usual service standard time of 10 weeks for their passport application to progress.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Upgrades to urgent services are only required where an applicant needs a passport sooner than ten weeks. For the small percentage of customers whose applications take longer than ten weeks, there is an expedited service at no additional cost to help ensure they receive their passport ahead of any planned travel.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) airlines and (b) airports (i) follow Government guidance on the use of national identification documents by people with Settled Status going to and from the EU and (ii) ensure that travellers are aware of that guidance.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have issued advice to airlines confirming EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who have been granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) may continue to use a national identity card to enter the UK.
We have also advised airlines they do not currently need to establish whether a person has been granted EUSS status, and is thus entitled to use a national identity card, when deciding whether to bring them to the UK but may use the online View and Prove service if they elect to do so.
GOV.UK provides advice on documentary requirements, including the use of national identity cards, for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens with status under the EU Settlement Scheme travelling to the UK. If you're from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Carriers can, and do, play a role in encouraging their passengers to check that they are properly documented for travel to the UK for example by providing advice or links to government guidance on their websites and apps. However, it is ultimately a matter for individual carriers what information they provide for their passengers.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for enquiries to support teams for hon. Members at HM Passport Office in each month in 2021; what steps her Department is taking to manage the (a) performance and (b) case management of those teams; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of Hon. Members written correspondence within 20 working days.
Performance against target has been impacted by a significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine and about HMPO passport applications.
The Department continues to prioritise enquiries related to Ukraine and recognises that it has not been able to meet service standard in other cases. Actions are being taken to clear backlogs and drive-up performance.
Members can escalate urgent and compassionate cases via the team at Portcullis House or via engagement surgeries with the MP Engagement team.
The Department continues to recruit additional resources and has recently been loaned staff from non-operational areas to assist in clearing the backlogs. A detailed recovery plan to support a return to an acceptable service standard is being prepared.
Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members correspondence are published quarterly with the latest Quarter available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q1-2022
The Department does not publish average processing times for substantive responses to correspondence.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will commit to undertake an external audit of average (a) visa and (b) passport processing times.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is regularly audited by external organisations, which includes the audit of our visas and passports operations.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing an independent assessment of passport processing times between March and May 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is regularly audited by external organisations, which includes the audit of our passport operations.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority on the potential merits of enabling travel within the Common Travel Area using biometric identification documents.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Common Travel Area (CTA) is an immigration arrangement between the UK and Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey which allows British and Irish citizens to travel freely between the UK and Ireland and reside in either jurisdiction.
As part of the CTA arrangements, the UK does not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from within the CTA, with no immigration checks whatsoever on the Northern Ireland-Ireland land border.
However, individuals are still expected to comply with the UK’s immigration framework and where required most people who are not British or Irish citizens will need to show a valid passport on arrival if required by a Border Force Officer. The document must be valid for the whole time individuals are in the UK.
There are no plans to change the document requirements on CTA routes.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of call back services by HM Passport Office.
Answered by Kevin Foster
As has already been said in Parliament, the recent performance of the Passport advice line has been unacceptable.
Teleperformance, the contractor who runs the line on behalf of HM Passport Office, has been required to put in place an improvement plan which has seen additional staff recruited to enable the expected performance standards to be met.