Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of enabling visa applicants who would have to travel between local authority areas to attend a testing centre to undertake online English language testing during the covid-19 outbreak.

As of 13 April 2021, all SELT test centres in the United Kingdom are open, and testing is available with appropriate health and safety measures in place. There are currently no plans to introduce online testing.

Consideration of the feasibility of online testing prior to the award of the current concessions contracts was undertaken in 2019, however it was assessed at the time the maturity of online proctoring technology and its anti-fraud measures were not at a suitable level to ensure the integrity of the SELT.

The Home Office continues to be interested in the opportunities, innovations and new technologies in this space which can be provided to our customers in the future.