Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) reduce the amount of manual processing on paper it carries out and (b) make those processes digital.

The government continues to encourage more people to go online, so they can access the guidance and services they need – as well as reducing the cost of public services.

The department has continued to reduce its paper consumption. This has been achieved through activity such as introducing a managed print service and continuing programmes of transformation and improvement within the department to reduce our reliance on paper.

In March 2019 we launched the department’s first digital end-to-end solution, the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), which has received over 3.5 million online applications.

Details of the department’s performance in reducing its paper consumption were published in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report – April 2018 to March 2019.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-commitments-2018-to-2019-annual-report