Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visitor visas have been refused to international performers sponsored to attend a UK festival in each of the last five years.

The UK continues to welcome artists, entertainers and musicians coming to the UK to perform and take part in festivals and events. The Home Office is working with the creative sector to better understand their needs, clarify visa requirements and ensure processes are as smooth as possible.

Information relating to visitor visas is released quarterly as part of the Home Office’s Immigration Statistics, which are available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2018/list-of-tables#visas. Standard visitors can undertake all the permitted activities as set out in the Immigration Rues. Data is not available to identify those visitors performing at festivals. To acquire data with that level of detail would require a manual examination of all records.