Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government after how many years of residence in the UK Hong Kong citizens admitted to the UK on a British National Overseas visa qualify for home fee status at English higher education institutions.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
To qualify for automatic home fee status in England, a person must have settled status or ‘a recognised connection’ to the UK. In the case of persons with settled status, they must be ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) for three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course.
Subject to meeting the normal eligibility requirements, Hong Kong British National Overseas status holders will be able to qualify for home fee status and student finance once they have acquired settled status in the UK, usually after five years. Most persons who acquire settled status will automatically meet the three-year ordinary residence requirement for home fee status and student finance.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government in each of the past three years how many times (1) OFCOM, (2) OFGEM, (3) the Competition and Markets Authority, and (4) the Financial Reporting Council, have exercised the power to disclose the identity of persons under investigation.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
The subject of OFCOM’s investigations are services rather than individual persons. The details of these investigations are published on OFCOM’s website.
OFGEM also publishes details of its investigations on its website.
The Competition and Markets Authority exercised the power to identify persons under investigation in seven cases in 2021; ten cases in 2022; and in five cases in 2023. In some of these cases multiple parties have been identified.
The Financial Reporting Council has not exercised the power in any of the past three years.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have of the power to disclose the identity of persons under investigation being exercised by UK regulators where the disclosure has not been in the public interest.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
The Department for Business and Trade does not hold centrally evidence on whether regulators have disclosed identities of a person under investigation when it has not been in the public interest.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, since its creation, how many whistleblowers the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has compensated; how much in aggregate has been paid in compensation; and what reimbursement has the CMA received from the Treasury for compensation payments made.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The CMA’s informant reward programme is an important tool in uncovering cartel activity. Payments have been made under the informant rewards programme.
The CMA does not provide figures about the levels or numbers of such payments. Given the number of CMA cases, divulging even aggregated payment figures could over time risk allowing the identification of cases having a whistleblower. This could put whistleblowers at risk and undermine the programme as a whole.
Informant reward payments are directly covered by the CMA’s budget.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what modelling they have undertaken of future immigration flows attributable to students, including those on student visas, dependents of those on student visas, and net migration resulting from such immigration; and what are the projected (1) immigration, (2) emigration, and (3) net migration figures for the next five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Last year as part of the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules published by the department on 17 July, an Impact Assessment was prepared setting out the impact from these Immigration Rules changes. This included analysis on student visas and net migration.
The Impact Assessment is subject to final departmental clearances and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) economic, and (2) fiscal impact, of the dependents of those on student visas.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Last year as part of the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules published by the department on 17 July, an Impact Assessment was prepared setting out the impact from these Immigration Rules changes. This included analysis on student visas and net migration.
The Impact Assessment is subject to final departmental clearances and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of those issued a visa as a dependent of a student in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (3) 2020, (4) 2021, (5) 2022, and (6) 2023, who (a) remain in the UK today, and (b) are expected to remain in the UK five years after their visa was first issued.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on how people move through the immigration system in the Migrant Journey report. The report contains information on the number of people starting a journey each year broken down by immigration route (e.g. study) and applicant type (e.g. dependant), and how long they continued to hold leave to remain in the UK. The latest report covers up to the end of 2022 and shows that for those who started their journey on a Study visa in 2017, 20% of main applicants and 26% of dependants held valid leave five years later. The report looks at periods when people held valid leave which does not necessarily mean they were in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of those issued student visas in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (3) 2020, (4) 2021, (5) 2022, and (6) 2023, who (a) remain in the UK today, and (b) are expected to remain in the UK five years after their visa was first issued.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on how people move through the immigration system in the Migrant Journey report. The report contains information on the number of people starting a journey each year broken down by immigration route (e.g. study) and applicant type (e.g. dependant), and how long they continued to hold leave to remain in the UK. The latest report covers up to the end of 2022 and shows that for those who started their journey on a Study visa in 2017, 20% of main applicants and 26% of dependants held valid leave five years later. The report looks at periods when people held valid leave which does not necessarily mean they were in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of those issued graduate visas in each of the years (1) 2021, (2) 2022 and (3) 2023 who (a) remain in the UK today, and (b) are expected to remain in the UK five years after their visa was first issued.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office published an Impact Assessment in March 2021 prior to the introduction of the Graduate route, which can be found at this link: Impact Assessment template (publishing.service.gov.uk). In addition, the Home Office publishes Migrant journey statistics which look at how migrants’ leave status changes over time. Future updates to this should provide insights into what people on the Graduate route do after their leave has expired.
Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of adult dependents of those on student visas who are in work.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Impact Assessment for the EU Withdrawal Bill estimated that of those non-EEA migrants that arrived in or after 2013 and who came to accompany and join, 41% were in employment.
The Home Office continues to review the evidence around employment of dependants.