Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2022 to Question 13706 on Visas: Research, how many visiting academics conducting international research commissioned by UK universities have been subject to delays in gaining short-term work visas since February 2022; and what assessment she made of the potential impact of those delays on UK research.

The Government recognises the importance of enabling visiting academics to undertake research in the UK.

The Home Office does not publish data on the individual delays by route, in this case, for Academic Visitors. It does publish data of its performance against its service level agreement, which can be found on the GOV.UK webpage: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

UKVI understands the impact of delays to customers therefore resources are focussed on reducing the current processing times and will continue to prioritise urgent compelling or compassionate cases across all workstreams.

UKVI encourages all customers to apply in good time ahead of intended travel dates, and customers can also make use of UKVI’s optional priority visa services for visit visas in certain locations.

The Department is also continuing to invest in a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives which will speed up and simplify decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision.