Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the UK Visas and Immigration account terms and conditions in relation to liability for losses arising from inability to access an eVisa.

We are committed to ensuring that the transition to eVisas is as smooth as possible for all status holders. The Home Office has a robust support model in place to facilitate this transition.

There is no plan to change the UKVI Account Terms & Conditions. We already operate a process of ex gratia payments where the Home Office is found to be at fault, and this will not change with the introduction of eVisas. Our online immigration status services are designed to be highly resilient, with rigorous testing and concurrent services in place to ensure efficiency. We consistently monitor our online services to resolve any issues as quickly as possible. Where technical issues do arise, there are fallback provisions in place to enable status to be confirmed through alternative means such as the Home Office’s dedicated UK Visas and Immigration Resolution Centre which can assist users who are experiencing technical issues and where necessary, enable a person’s status to be verified through alternative means.

On sharecode reliability, we have not identified problems with the share code mechanism itself. The system is designed to invalidate codes in the following circumstances:

• Expiry after 90 days – Share codes are time-limited to prevent indefinite access to personal immigration data.
• Status updates – If a user’s immigration status changes after a share code is generated, the code is invalidated to ensure that the migrant has had a chance to review and share the most current status.

On carrier eVisa verifications, if someone’s carrier, for example, airline, rail company or other transport provider, is unable to check a person’s permission to travel to the UK, the carrier may contact the UK Border Force Carrier Support Hub for advice, 24/7. This service is for carriers only.

We do not collect data on how many times people have been refused airline boarding and UK entry as a result of eVisa issues. This data would rely on either a customer or airline notifying the Home Office and therefore could not be classed as a reliable data source

Information requested regarding the breakdown of reported eVisa issues is not available from published statistics. The relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

We have carefully considered possible options for offline backup versions of eVisas. Information on a printed document would not allow demonstration of real-time immigration status, and therefore is not a secure method of sharing and proving immigration status in a way that gives confidence to the user and the checker.