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 reducing the review period of visa brakes for student visa applicants from Cameroon, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Myanmar from 18 months to 12 months.

The visa brake for Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan will be reviewed by the Home Office 18 months after imposition to enable a full consideration of the impact the visa brake has had on the number of asylum claims emanating from affected cohorts against broader asylum trends.

The brake will only be lifted once the government assesses it appropriate to do so and it is clear that there has been a reduction in the risk of high proportions of visa-linked asylum claims recommencing on these routes from these nationalities.