Draft Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2018

Robert Goodwill Excerpts

Monday 5th February 2018 General Committees

[Caroline Nokes]

That is completely separate issue from that which we are considering. We will introduce a programme that will allow EU citizens to apply for settled status at the end of this year. Those who already have permanent residency will not be charged an additional fee for settled status.

Two further changes included within the draft order will delete obsolete provisions for which no fee is currently set in regulations. The original 2016 order permits a fee to be set for the acceptance of applications at a place other than an office of the Home Office. That provision currently allows the Home Office to charge a premium fee when delivering an optional service to enrol biometrics at a place of convenience to service users. Under plans to modernise services offered, the draft order will allow for fees to be set at an hourly rate, rather than a fixed fee. That will provide flexibility and allow for the fee charged to be commensurate with the time taken to deliver such services. That change does not affect the Home Office’s basic services, such as for those who enrol their biometric information at a local post office.

Finally, the draft order will also update the power to charge for services offered on behalf of certain Commonwealth and British overseas territories, where such services may not be offered within consular premises.

To sum up, we seek to make a small number of changes to the 2016 order to maintain the framework for immigration and nationality fees. We do not seek to change the overarching charging framework, nor the maximum fee levels agreed by Parliament.

[Mr Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the draft order is part of the Government’s intention to move towards a border, immigration and citizenship system that is fully funded by those who use it, not subsidised by the taxpayer?

[Caroline Nokes]

Given that my hon. Friend is a former Immigration Minister, we should expect him to be completely right in that respect. Indeed, we seek to move to a position where the fees charged cover the costs of providing the border, immigration and citizenship service.

As I have said, we are not seeking to make changes to the overarching framework, nor to the maximum fee levels that were agreed by Parliament and set out in the 2016 order, other than in respect of the premium service fee, which I have already referred to. Individual fee levels to be charged over the course of the next year will be set by new regulations, which are due to be laid before Parliament in March 2018. I therefore invite the Committee to approve this amendment order.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)]

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I echo many of the points that have just been made. We in the Scottish National party have concerns about the cost of immigration and the effectiveness of the immigration system.

I will highlight two particular points from my own constituency. At the end of July a woman who lives in the Gorbals applied via the premium service for a spousal visa for her husband, but the application was not approved until the end of September. The application was made so that her partner could be there for the birth of her child. Given that the response was deemed to be within the 12-week limit, she did not get a refund despite not having received any manner of premium service: the service did not meet her needs.

A couple in Pollokshields applied on 7 June via a six-week service for a spousal visa. The Home Office eventually got back to them on 1 October to let them know that their application had been refused. Not only was it not a premium service, but it did not have a good outcome and they received no recompense for the lack of a visa or premium service. By putting out the service to be delivered by an external commercial company, I am worried that whenever anyone makes a complaint about the likes of VFS Global the Home Office replies that timescales on its commercial partners’ websites are indicative, so there is no guarantee that applying for a premium service will deliver a premium service, and that is a matter of great concern.

I am also concerned about the suggested cost. The hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton sensibly pointed out that it could take more than several hours to process some of the applications, and it would be hugely stressful for someone sitting in the waiting room seeing the cost going up and up. It is already expensive.

[Mr Goodwill]

I am sure that the hon. Lady realises that the whole point of the premium service is that the immigration service goes to it. The individual would not be sitting in a waiting room, but would be visited in their hotel room or home. That is why the premium service is so attractive to certain VIPs, footballers or perhaps foreign royals who need it.

[Alison Thewliss]

It is, regardless, still a very expensive service, and I question whether the expense meets the cost of processing those visas. It would be good to get more information from the Government about exactly how much it costs to provide such a service. As I was about to say, I am concerned about something not mentioned in the documentation, namely the equality impact, including on women, who have lower earnings and may be in the UK waiting for a spouse to come over. They will have even fewer means at their disposal. The situation was hugely stressful for the constituent I have mentioned, who was pregnant and waiting for her husband to come over.

Will the Minister clarify the point about charging people for not collecting biometric residence permits? I want to probe further as to the scale of that problem. Exactly how many people do not collect them on time, or at all? What are the reasons for that? What investigation has the Home Office done of that apparent problem? There must be a problem, unless the Home Office just wants to gouge people further for money for immigration. That seems to be a pattern, judging by what comes through my office.

Finally, a further example of such gouging is charging £6.25 for a webchat facility or email. It would be good to know exactly the reason for that, and for the £2.50-a-minute phone cost. Will those costs be fixed or capped, or will there be continued rises? My point is that immigration is a very expensive business. The super premium service has not provided anything like super premium responses to the people who come to my office. They come to me chasing answers, which they have not been able to get despite paying considerable sums of money to go through the immigration process.

I should like to know a wee bit more about quality checking, and the controls that there will be over external companies once the service is put out to them. At the moment my constituents tell me that the service is not adequate or fit for purpose, and they are not getting anything like a super premium service.