Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 January (HL13397), whether they will now answer the question put.

In light of the Baroness Spielman’s further Parliamentary question, the department has reviewed the response and is now able to offer further detail, subject to the constraints of commercial confidentiality during the live procurement process.

The Home Office has conducted comprehensive market engagement to assess the risks and opportunities of remote English language testing, recognising that all delivery models whether paper-based, in-person, or remote carry fraud risks. The new service shall be subject to a rigorous implementation regime of operational, security and technical testing for up 15 months. Once live, the new service shall include robust safeguards including two-stage identity verification, active session monitoring, tamperproof systems, comprehensive audit regimes, mystery shopping, and annual independent audits. Fraud will be monitored through these mechanisms as part of the overall provisions of the Government Model Services Contract that has been tailored and enhanced for these services.