Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what system replaced the AI streaming tool used for visit visa applications discontinued in 2020.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Global Visa Risk Streaming (GVRS) system which was operated by UK Visas and Immigration for streaming visit visa applications was discontinued on 3rd August 2020 but did not use Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The current workflow routing solution, Complexity Application Routing Solution (Visits) (CARS(V)), does not use AI and each visit visa application is decided on a case-by-case assessment against the requirements of the Appendix V Immigration Rules.
UK Visas and Immigration have published detailed guidance on the current workflow routing system: Complexity application routing solution (visits) (CARS(V)) (accessible) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the affordability of the visit visa application process for applicants from (a) low and (b) middle income countries.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office keeps fees for immigration and nationality applications under review. Where we make fee changes in legislation, an Impact Assessment is published.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to improve the biosecurity of laboratories handling dangerous pathogens.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
Part 7 of the Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act (ATCSA) 2001 regulates the ability of sites such as universities, hospitals and research centres to hold and work with certain dangerous pathogens and toxins as listed under Schedule 5 of the Act.
The legislation places several responsibilities on sites including notifying the Home Office of their intention to hold or work with such substances, and ensuring suitable security measures are in place.
Current security levels around Schedule 5 substances remain sufficiently high and we continue to work with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) to continuously review and improve the policies, processes and legislation surrounding Schedule 5 substances.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of notices given to asylum seekers to leave accommodation provided by his Department on trends in the level of demand for local government homelessness services.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
We work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure the right asylum decision data is being shared with local authorities to enable effective planning and to lessen the impact on existing homelessness and rough sleeping pressures. Our accommodation providers are directly working with local authorities to notify them when an individual is due to have their asylum support ended.
We are working with our partners, including local authorities, to provide timely notification of key events that impact them. We are working with our Strategic Migration Partnerships to facilitate regional sessions with councils and to share data.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he plans to take to reduce the number of pending visa applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Detailed information on UK Visas and Immigration’s performance against all of its customer service standards across different immigration routes is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/visa-processing-times.
UKVI are currently within their service standards on the overwhelming majority of visa applications.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November to Question 1561 on Visas: Applications, what is the (a) target time and (b) average time taken to process a skilled worker visa.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office makes every attempt to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.
Data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration
The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans his Department has to reduce the number of pending visa applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office is not currently experiencing any delays in the processing of visas for all routes.
Current processing times can be found on the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/visa-processing-times
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were electronically tagged as a condition of immigration bail as of 1 September 2023; and what was the cost to the public purse of electronic tagging in immigration cases in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Foreign nationals who commit crimes here in the UK will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible.
In some cases, where deportation is delayed, individuals may be released on electronic monitoring as a condition of immigration bail, pending deportation.
Since 14 June 2022, we have been piloting the use of EM with a small cohort of individuals who have arrived in the UK through illegal and dangerous routes.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of biometric residence permits that have been issued with incorrect information in 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether visas granted by her Department to individuals in Sudan can be collected by the applicants in Ethiopia.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Where a decision has been made to grant a visa, processes are in place to transport their visa to another VAC location of their choice for collection.
Customers should contact Sudanpassportenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk in order to discuss individual arrangements for the collection of their visa if they are outside of Sudan.