Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the accessibility of online visa applications.

UK Visas and Immigration are rolling out a new application platform across all application routes. The new application forms have been built to comply with the Government Digital Service standard, which in turn ensures compliance with wider standards on usability and accessibility.

Extensive testing has taken place with real users of the service, observing how they interact with the forms and adapting the design and questions in accordance with feedback from those testing sessions. In addition, we offer Assisted Digital support for customers who have difficulty completing online immigration applications, for example, if they do not have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to complete an online application without assistance.

Support is provided over the phone or face-to-face in locations across the UK, in a library or other voluntary sector centre or by a home visit from a tutor. This service has been available since September 2017 to customers who are based in the UK and has recently been extended to include the EU Settlement Scheme.