Immigration: Biometrics

(asked on 11th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2017 to Question 10463, on immigration: biometrics, what mechanisms are in place to measure effectiveness of the continuous improvement processes employed by her Department.


Answered by
Brandon Lewis Portrait
Brandon Lewis
This question was answered on 17th October 2017

a) As the previous answer, 10463, highlighted, UK Visas and Immigration are committed to the principles of continuous improvement in all areas and to applying these to ensure processes are efficient and effective.

b) Published service standards for all No Time Limit, and Biometric Residence Permit replacement, applications are to complete 100% of straightforward applications within six months.

Where an application is defined as non-straightforward, due to complexity, the customer will be written to within the normal processing time to explain why it will not be decided within the normal standard, and to explain what will happen next.

Since 2012 UK Visas and Immigration have undertaken numerous improvements to streamline the process and improve customer service. This included introducing biometrics to Non-EEA national applications and applications for British Citizenship. We have introduced email prompts to customers and improved the wording on correspondence letters and the UK Visas and Immigration website to ensure customers are aware of the application process and solutions to common issues.

We have measured this through monitoring the time taken for applicants to enrol their biometrics and from customer feedback when resolving issues. Moving to digital applications, UK Visas and Immigration are looking at continuous improvement once again to improve efficiency in collecting applicants biometric data.

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