Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of removing application fees and healthcare surcharges from the Graduate visa on the likelihood of additional graduates remaining in the UK for work after completing their studies.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Graduate route was introduced in 2021 to help new graduates who have successfully completed their eligible study in eligible UK universities get a head-start on their career by allowing these graduates to work or look for work for up to three years immediately following their graduation.
A full impact assessment of the route was published in March 2021 and can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1248-4-march-2021
The Home Office has no plans to remove the application fee or to extend the length of stay for the Graduate route.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
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 allowing Graduate visa applicants to pay their healthcare surcharge on an annual basis, rather than upfront.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Graduate route was introduced in 2021 to help new graduates who have successfully completed their eligible study in eligible UK universities get a head-start on their career by allowing these graduates to work or look for work for up to three years immediately following their graduation.
A full impact assessment of the route was published in March 2021 and can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1248-4-march-2021
The Home Office has no plans to remove the application fee or to extend the length of stay for the Graduate route.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
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 removing application fees for the Graduate visa.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Graduate route was introduced in 2021 to help new graduates who have successfully completed their eligible study in eligible UK universities get a head-start on their career by allowing these graduates to work or look for work for up to three years immediately following their graduation.
A full impact assessment of the route was published in March 2021 and can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1248-4-march-2021
The Home Office has no plans to remove the application fee or to extend the length of stay for the Graduate route.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to engage with UK universities on the effectiveness of the Graduate visa in reducing skills shortages in affected sectors.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Graduate route was introduced in 2021 to help new graduates who have successfully completed their eligible study in eligible UK universities get a head-start on their career by allowing these graduates to work or look for work for up to three years immediately following their graduation.
A full impact assessment of the route was published in March 2021 and can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1248-4-march-2021
The Home Office has no plans to remove the application fee or to extend the length of stay for the Graduate route.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
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 extending the amount of time people holding Graduate visas can stay in the UK after successfully completing a course in the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Graduate route was introduced in 2021 to help new graduates who have successfully completed their eligible study in eligible UK universities get a head-start on their career by allowing these graduates to work or look for work for up to three years immediately following their graduation.
A full impact assessment of the route was published in March 2021 and can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-1248-4-march-2021
The Home Office has no plans to remove the application fee or to extend the length of stay for the Graduate route.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish information on which legal routes are available to asylum seekers in camps in Greece’s Aegean Islands who are seeking to be reunited with family in the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK already provides a safe and legal route to bring families together through its refugee family reunion policy. The current refugee family reunion policy allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country. Over 29,000 visas have been issued under this policy in the last 5 years. Under the family reunion policy, we do not restrict where someone has to be in order to make an application.
As set out in the New Plan for Immigration, the Government committed to review safe and legal routes to the UK and has a statutory duty to conduct a public consultation on family reunion for UASC in the EU. We have now completed the consultation as part of the wider consultation on the New Plan for Immigration. We have carefully considered the responses and a report, laid in Parliament on 22 July 2021, on the outcome of the review of safe and legal routes confirms the UK wants to be bold and ambitious in the safe and legal routes it provides.
New Plan for Immigration - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Home Office:
What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the temporary accommodation provided by her Department for asylum seekers.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Contingency accommodation - whether this be hotels across the United Kingdom or at the Napier barracks and Penally training camp - was set up in response to the enormous pressures placed on our asylum system by the coronavirus pandemic.
We expect the highest standards from providers and have instructed them to make improvements as part of our contract governance and following inspections, an independent audit and the interim report from the Independent Chief Inspector.