Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Security to the Global Financial Integrity DC Forum Conference in February 2023 on closing loopholes in visa waiver agreements with third countries that operate citizenship by investment regimes, whether her Department has taken recent steps to tackle those loopholes; and what estimate her Department has made of (a) the number of people who have entered the UK via those routes and (b) the number and proportion of those people that (i) have a criminal record and (ii) pose a risk to national security in each of the last 12 months.

Visit visas are an important part of securing the UK’s border and are an effective tool for the UK in reducing illegal immigration, tackling organised crime and protecting national security. The UK keeps its visa system under regular review. Decisions taken following engagement across government.

Careful consideration of the operation of citizenship by investment programmes by Dominica and Vanuatu has shown abuse of these programmes. The UK imposed a visa regime on both countries on 19 July 2023.