Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of appointments (a) on offer and (b) booked at UKVCAS centres were free appointments from 29 June to 20 July 2020.

Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) are our commercial partner who run the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) on behalf of UKVI. SSL monitor UKVCAS performance against set key performance indicators (KPIs) within the contract with the Home Office maintaining oversight to ensure Sopra Steria Ltd adhere to contractual requirements.

A KPI to measure the number of free appointments in the UKVCAS booking system for core sites was agreed on the 31st March 2020 with the service provider, SSL. The updated Schedule 7 Performance Levels containing the detail of the KPI will be added to contracts finder by the 14th September.

Information on the number of free appointments which were offered and booked between 29 June and 20 July is not held centrally and would take a disproportionate amount of time to secure.