Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of staffing levels within UK Visa and Immigration in the context of the refugee crisis arising from the war in Ukraine.

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

UKVI has redeployed caseworking staff in the UK to work seven days a week to process Ukraine applications, and has temporarily loaned in staff from other departments like HM Revenue and Customs to help manage demand.

The Home Office and the commercial provider operating our Visa Application Centres have also surged staff across Europe to meet demand, where we can offer over 13,000 appointments to visa applicants, and UKVI staff in the UK are working seven days a week to process applications.