Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for partner visas for which the additional fee for fast track service has been paid are affected by the suspension on processing applications as a result of the legal challenge to the Government's minimum-income requirement.

A temporary hold on decision-making in respect of some partner visa applications was introduced on 22 February so that the implications of the Supreme Court judgment handed down that day in MM (Lebanon) & Others could be considered.

The partner visa applications affected are those under Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules which fall to be refused and which involve a child or do not meet the minimum income requirement. The temporary hold will be lifted once the judgment's findings have been addressed.