Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff from her Department were assigned to processing visa applications for entry into the UK from nationals from (a) Afghanistan and (b) Ukraine, as of 10 March 2022.

We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand, including from pressures relating to the situations in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

The Home Office, alongside the commercial provider operating our Visa Application Centres have surged staff across Europe to meet demand, so we can offer over 13,000 appointments to visa applicants. UKVI staff in the UK are working seven days a week to process applications, with personnel drawn from across its operations as needed.