Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that time spent in residence in the UK on any visa is counted towards the five-year period required for an application for indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Many visa routes, such as those for family and skilled work, are intended to allow a path to settlement in the UK. Other routes, such as those for study and temporary work, are intended for visa holders to be able to come to the UK for a specific, time-bound purpose, and therefore do not count towards the qualifying period for settlement.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many eVisa applications have been received as of 2 September 2024.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
During the transition to eVisas, we are closely monitoring the volume of customers who have registered for a UKVI account and the forecast total volume of affected customers. The total volume will be dictated by ongoing approvals under BRP generating routes through to the end of 2024. This data requires detailed assurance before it can be published externally, but we plan to make it available on gov.uk in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Biometric Residence Permits will expire with the move to eVisas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
During the transition to eVisas, we are closely monitoring the volume of customers who have registered for a UKVI account and the forecast total volume of affected customers. The total volume will be dictated by ongoing approvals under BRP generating routes through to the end of 2024. This data requires detailed assurance before it can be published externally, but we plan to make it available on gov.uk in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to grant visa extensions to Ukrainian nationals under the age of 18 on the Ukrainian Sponsorship Scheme that want to pursue higher education.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Ukrainian nationals and their families granted under the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme have the right to work, rent or study and access to benefits and services for the duration of their permission. Ukrainian nationals who wish to pursue higher education are free to do so while seeking sanctuary in the UK under the scheme.
The Ukraine Permission Extension scheme is due to open for applications in advance of the expiry of the first Ukraine scheme visas in early 2025, providing the same rights to study and access to benefits and services that individuals on the existing schemes have.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of Disclosure Barring Service checks have been completed by police forces within 60 days in each month of the last two years by police force.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information in an easily accessible format, therefore the information requested cannot be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set a target date for British National (Overseas) passport holders to be able to use eGates at the UK border.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The introduction of eGates has been part of the Home Office’s wider approach to transforming our borders. Currently, there are over 270 eGates in place at 15 air and rail ports, open to British citizens and a range of other nationalities.
We are in the process of reviewing our approach to eGate eligibility policy and will announce our decision in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2024 to Question 23314 on Migrant Workers: Hospitality Industry, if he will make it his policy to (a) collect and (b) publish data on certificates of sponsorship for the hospitality industry.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office publishes data on Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) used in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on CoS used by industry are published in table ‘CoS_D01’ of the Work Sponsorship detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates up to the end of December 2023.
A CoS is considered used when the visa applicant has made an application which has also received an outcome.
Hospitality is not a term used by UK Visas and Immigration when classifying job roles for immigration purposes and there are no plans to use it to gather or publish data on Certificates of Sponsorship.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the enforcement notice issued by the Information Commissioner's Office on 21 March 2024 on the privacy risks posed by the electronic monitoring of people arriving in the UK by unauthorised means.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) findings related to the Electronic Monitoring Expansion Pilot which operated between 14 June 2022 and 14 December 2023. That pilot has now ended.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were subject to electronic tagging as part of his Department's pilot programme between 15 June 2022 and 31 December 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The information requested is not available from published statistics.
However, as set out in the Pilot Equality Impact Assessment (available at Equality impact assessment: GPS electronic monitoring expansion pilot - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)), 600 individuals were to be subject to Electronic Monitoring as part of immigration bail conditions.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to exempt people who arrived in the UK before 1 January 2024 from the new earnings threshold for skilled worker visa applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government position was originally set out on 8 December 2023. Updated details are available here: homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/01/reducing-net-migration-factsheet-december-2023/.
Those already in the Skilled Worker route before the Immigration Rules changes are exempt from the new median salary levels when they change sponsor, extend, or settle. We would, however, expect their pay to progress at the same rate as resident workers; therefore, they will be subject to the updated 25th percentiles using the latest pay data when they next make an application to change employment, extend their stay, or settle. This is in line with normal practice.
Anyone switching into the Skilled Worker category after 4 April will be subject to the new salary requirement. This includes those in the UK switching from other immigration routes.