Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to publish the details of the refund process for EU nationals who have already paid fees through the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
As the Prime Minister announced on 21 January, there will be no fee for applications under the EU Settlement Scheme when we roll out the scheme in full by 30 March. Anyone who has applied during the pilot phase, or who does so, will have their fee reimbursed. The Home Office will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will consider applications for optometrists within the sub-category of High Value/Inward Investment in respect of Certificate of Sponsorship allocations under the Tier 2 Visa guidelines.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The high value inward investment provision is designed for businesses which have their headquarters and principal place of business outside of the UK and that are relocating or investing new capital expenditure of £27 million or creating at least 21 new jobs in the UK. Jobs which fall under the provision are exempt from the Resident Labour Market Test and the Tier 2 cap.
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Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect on applicants of the April 2018 increase in fees for applications from non-EEA nationals for Leave to Remain in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
An updated Impact Assessment for 2018/19 was produced and laid with the Fees Regulations in March - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/330/impacts
All fee changes are agreed with key Government departments, and a Policy Equality Statement (PES) is produced in order to evaluate our fee structure in line with our obligations.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of granting passports with a five year duration to people aged over 75 at a reduced cost.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
HM Passport Office issues 10 year passports to adults and 5 year passports to children under 16, and there are currently no plans to review this.
Passports are issued with a shorter validity for children for security reasons, due to the rapid change of appearance as the child grows; this is charged at a lower price due to the costs being spread across all passport fees. Making passports available with a shorter validity to additional age groups would require subsidy by other customers and impact the passport fee.
A special concession is offered for applicants born before 2 September 1929, who can apply for a passport free of charge. This was introduced for the Second World War generation in recognition of their contribution to the national effort during the war years.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for partner visas for which the additional fee for fast track service has been paid are affected by the suspension on processing applications as a result of the legal challenge to the Government's minimum-income requirement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
A temporary hold on decision-making in respect of some partner visa applications was introduced on 22 February so that the implications of the Supreme Court judgment handed down that day in MM (Lebanon) & Others could be considered.
The partner visa applications affected are those under Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules which fall to be refused and which involve a child or do not meet the minimum income requirement. The temporary hold will be lifted once the judgment's findings have been addressed.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many partner visa applications are affected by the suspension of processing applications as a result of the legal challenge to the Government's minimum income requirement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
A temporary hold on decision-making in respect of some partner visa applications was introduced on 22 February so that the implications of the Supreme Court judgment handed down that day in MM (Lebanon) & Others could be considered.
The partner visa applications affected are those under Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules which fall to be refused and which involve a child or do not meet the minimum income requirement. The temporary hold will be lifted once the judgment's findings have been addressed.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to lift the suspension on the processing of certain applications for partner visas that was introduced as a result of the legal challenge to the minimum income requirement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
A temporary hold on decision-making in respect of some partner visa applications was introduced on 22 February so that the implications of the Supreme Court judgment handed down that day in MM (Lebanon) & Others could be considered.
The partner visa applications affected are those under Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules which fall to be refused and which involve a child or do not meet the minimum income requirement. The temporary hold will be lifted once the judgment's findings have been addressed.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to refund fast track payments made by applicants for partner visas where the processing of those applications has been suspended as a result of the legal challenge to the Government's minimum income requirement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
A temporary hold on decision-making in respect of some partner visa applications was introduced on 22 February 2017 so that the implications of the Supreme Court judgment handed down that day in MM (Lebanon) & Others could be considered.
UKVI communicated this to potential priority visa service customers on 27 February 2017 and will consider any refund requests from customers who paid the priority service fee for a settlement visa before 27 February 2017 and whose application was put on hold by the Home Office. These requests should be made via the usual enquiry helpline: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about/complaints-procedure#how-to-complain
Both UK Visas and Immigration and their commercial partners make clear in communications to customers that the priority visa service fee will not be refunded if the visa is refused or takes longer than the publicised processing times, other than in exceptional circumstances.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to staff working at border controls in UK airports on questions which can and cannot be asked to passengers arriving in the UK with EU passports.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Anyone seeking entry or admission to the UK must on arrival establish their nationality and identity, as well as comply with other checks under the Border Force Operating Mandate.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions her Department applied the exemption in section 38(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (disclosure likely to endanger the physical or mental health of any individual) in wholly or partly refusing a freedom of information request in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karen Bradley
No such instructions have been issued. Officials handling freedom of information requests are advised to consult the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office whenever the use of an application is being considered.
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistical reports on the handling of requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for central government. These reports include statistics on the number of times each exemption was used by each government department to withhold information. These reports can be accessed on the following webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.