Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who have paid for the priority service for a visa application have not received a decision within five days in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The specific information requested is not published, however Home Office published information on in-country visa performance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-may-2019
The Home Office does not publish information on the out of country Priority and Super Priority visa service. Published information on the international visa operation is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, wow many people who have paid for the super priority service for a visa application have received a decision within one day in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The specific information requested is not published, however Home Office published information on in-country visa performance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-may-2019
The Home Office does not publish information on the out of country Priority and Super Priority visa service. Published information on the international visa operation is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who have paid for the super priority service for a visa application have not received a decision within 24 hours in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The specific information requested is not published, however Home Office published information on in-country visa performance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-may-2019
The Home Office does not publish information on the out of country Priority and Super Priority visa service. Published information on the international visa operation is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was to process visa applications to the UK made in New Delhi in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The specific information requested is not published, however Home Office published information on in-country visa performance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-may-2019
The Home Office does not publish information on the out of country Priority and Super Priority visa service. Published information on the international visa operation is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May to Question 251906, how many people have been deported to Sri Lanka in 2019.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The number of enforced returns from the UK by year and country of destination is published in table rt_05q (returns data tables, volume 5) in ‘Immigration Statistics, year ending March 2019’, available from the GOV.uk website at:
The term 'deportations' refers to a legally-defined subset of returns which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is conducive to the public good. Information on those deported is not separately available and therefore the published statistics refer to all enforced returns.
Information for April to June 2019 will be published on 22 August 2019.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what events officials and Ministers in his Department have attended as part of the Government consultation of stakeholders on the future immigration system.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Following the publication of the Government’s White Paper ‘The UK’s future skills-based immigration system’ (Cm9722) on 19 December 2018, Ministers and officials are undertaking an extensive year long engagement programme. We have already delivered over 100 events in every nation of the UK, reaching almost 1500 stakeholders. These events have included representatives from many sectors of the UK economy including business, hospitality, tourism, agriculture, health and social care. We have also established five advisory groups which meet regularly to consider in detail the policy, design and implementation of our proposals. The membership of these groups is available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provision there is for entry clearance for visitors from Iran in that country.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The provision for entry clearance for visitors from Iran is the same as for all countries whose nationals require a UK visit visa; individuals must submit a visit visa application, if the application meets the requirements of the Immigration Rules a visa will be issued.
In addition to the visa application centre in Tehran, individuals living in Iran wishing to apply for long term visas can submit their application in Turkey or the United Arab Emirates. An application for a UK visit visa can be submitted at any UK Visa Application Centre in the world. The UK keeps its visa system, including the capacity of facilities for submitting entry clearance applications, under regular review.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to change the capacity of facilities in Iran for entry clearance to the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The provision for entry clearance for visitors from Iran is the same as for all countries whose nationals require a UK visit visa; individuals must submit a visit visa application, if the application meets the requirements of the Immigration Rules a visa will be issued.
In addition to the visa application centre in Tehran, individuals living in Iran wishing to apply for long term visas can submit their application in Turkey or the United Arab Emirates. An application for a UK visit visa can be submitted at any UK Visa Application Centre in the world. The UK keeps its visa system, including the capacity of facilities for submitting entry clearance applications, under regular review.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2019 to Question 254744 on Educational Testing Service: Prosecutions, what the nationalities are of the 25 convicted individuals.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The individuals convicted were made up of the following nationalities (in alphabetical order):
Three Bangladeshi nationals;
Five British nationals;
Four naturalised British nationals;
Eight Indian nationals;
Four Pakistanis nationals;
One Sri Lankan national.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2019 to Question 249833, how many students who have taken the TOEIC English language test since 2016 sat the exam in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
I refer the Honourable Member to my previous answer. ETS were removed from the list of approved test providers for immigration purposes on 1 July 2014. TOEIC has not been accepted for immigration purposes since that date.