Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to extend the provision of free biometric enrolment services to include a Core Service Point in the City of Bristol.

UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) centres are run by Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) on behalf of UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI). SSL operate a core service point, offering free appointments in Cardiff Bay, approximately one hour away from Bristol. SSL also operate an enhanced service point in Bristol, the Kingswood enhanced service point, where customers can choose to enrol their biometrics and avail themselves of the other services included within the additional charge.

It is not economically viable to have a core UKVCAS site offering free appointments in every region. When the UKVCAS service was incepted, SSL undertook market research to identify service point locations; they found c.62% of customers will, on average, have to travel less than 25 miles to visit a core service centre, with 78% travelling less than 50 miles.

Whilst there are no immediate plans to open a UKVCAS core site in Bristol, service point locations are not fixed and are designed to evolve with demand. Where SSL find there is excess demand for appointments, they work to increase capacity at existing sites and open new sites in the region to ensure all customers are able to book an appointment. Since the start of the contract, several new sites have opened to meet customer demand.