Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether she informed the Permanent Secretary at her Department before her visit to Israel in August 2017.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
My Rt Hon Friend the member for Witham (Ms Patel) resigned as Secretary of State for International Development on 8 November. The Permanent Secretary was not informed ahead of the visit.
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made to conclude entry clearance application GWF 043559042 lodged at post in New Delhi on 4 May 2017 and received by her Department on 9 May 2017.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We do not routinely comment on individual cases.
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides to the visa processing centre, Sheffield on the handling of visa entry clearance applications for a (a) spouse and (b) fiancé which have not been processed within 12 weeks; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
All UKVI Decision Making Centres follow the same Customer Service Standards when handling visa entry clearance applications.
Customer Service Standards for Settlement for those applying from outside the UK can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about-our-services
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides to the visa processing centre, Sheffield on the recording of (a) courier receipts and (b) tracking data for documents relating to applications for visas for entry clearance.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Documents relating to applications are dispatched to Sheffield by approved couriers who utilise specific tracking systems throughout the process. Where documents are sent directly to Sheffield they are recorded by staff upon receipt.
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many settlement applications were processed by Sheffield Visa Section between May and August 2017.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The specific data requested is not published by the Home Office.
Published data on the numbers of visas processed within published service standards, is published online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-august-2017
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of entry clearance applications were processed within (a) 12 and (b) 24 weeks in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The specific data requested is not published by the Home Office.
Published data on visa processing times, including the percentage of visas processed within published service standards, is published online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’).
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was to process priority entry clearance applications for a (a) spouse and (b) fiancé at visa offices in (a) New Delhi, (b) Mumbai, (c) Chennai, (d) Islamabad, (e) Dhaka and (f) Abu Dhabi in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The specific data requested is not published by the Home Office.
Published data on visa processing times, including the percentage of visas processed within published service standards, is published online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’).
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many entry clearance applications for a (a) spouse and (b) fiancé have not been processed within 12 weeks in each of the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The specific data requested is not published by the Home Office.
Published data on visa processing times, including the percentage of visas processed within published service standards, is published online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’).
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was to process entry clearance applications for a (a) spouse and (b) fiancé at visa offices in (i) New Delhi, (ii) Mumbai, (iii) Chennai, (iv) Islamabad, (v) Dhaka and (vi) Abu Dhabi in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The specific data requested is not published by the Home Office.
Published data on visa processing times, including the percentage of visas processed within published service standards, is published online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’).
Asked by: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many nationals of each of the other 27 EU countries were employed by (a) her Department and (b) UK Visas and Immigration in (i) 2013, (ii) 2014, (iii) 2015 and (iv) 2016.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.