Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date her Department adopted the policy that nobody should be refused leave to remain in the UK solely on the grounds of having been accused by ETS of cheating in its TOEIC English language test.

The former Home Secretary, The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 23 July 2019:

“I have therefore asked officials to review our guidance to ensure that we are taking the right decisions on these cases to ensure we are properly balancing a belief that deception was committed some years ago against other factors that would normally lead to leave being granted, especially where children are involved.”

The ETS casework guidance first issued on 09 March 2020 (latest update was 18 November 2020) which made clear that using deception in an English language test is not a mandatory ground to refuse an application, but must be balanced against all relevant aspects of the application, including any human rights claim.