Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has carried out an assessment of the (a) coverage and (b) accessibility of Passport Offices for people (i) in rural areas and (ii) without personal transport in (A) Scotland, (B) Northern Ireland, (C) Wales and (D) England.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The vast majority of passport applicants have no need to travel to a passport office to access services, with online applications being the cheapest and simplest way to get your passport, alongside the availability of check and send services at Post Offices across the UK.
Appointments are currently required to access urgent services and are made available from 8 passport offices located across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. However, the applicant need not attend an urgent service appointment personally and may instead authorise someone to attend on their behalf.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of reducing in-person assessments by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit on compliance with regulations.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Animals in Science Regulation Unit has recently strengthened its regulatory oversight processes to better deliver protections to animals used in science. This has included the process of in-person assessments. The Regulator has published its process for rigorous full system audits at: www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-research-technical-advice#process-and-standards-for-establishment-full-system-audits. At audit the Regulator requires evidence for assessment of compliance against all legal licence conditions, including those for animal welfare, which are available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-research-technical-advice#process-and-standards-for-establishment-full-system-audits. The frequency of the audits meets the requirements specified in law.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the visa application regime for Ukrainian refugees to refugees from (a) Syria and (b) Afghanistan.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme have been developed in response to the very specific circumstances of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and are designed to help Ukrainians fleeing the conflict.
The Ukrainian Schemes have been designed in light of very different circumstances to those which led to the Government’s Syrian and Afghan resettlement schemes. The Government has no plans to extend eligibility for its Ukrainian Visa Application Schemes to refugees from Syria or Afghanistan.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the amount of information provided in respect of waiting times for passport applications prior to people starting applications, including when applications from multiple children are interlinked.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Due to COVID-19, over 5 million people delayed applying for a British passport during 2020 and 2021. In preparation for the demand for international travel returning, since April 2021 we have been advising people to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their passport. This remains the case.
Until recently, Her Majesty’s Passport Office published additional guidance showing the typical processing times for applications that had been completed in the previous week. However, customer feedback indicated these timeframes were being conflated with the need to allow up to ten weeks and, in response, additional guidance is no longer published.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for the completion and awarding of a visa under the Homes for Ukraine scheme; and what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of that timeframe.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Improvements have been made to ensure visas are being processed quickly, which includes surging staff across government to bolster resource and speed up processing across both schemes.
Figures for both schemes are published regularly online and can be found at: Ukraine Family Scheme: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Home Office does not capture the average length of time between applications being submitted and granted under either the Ukraine Family Scheme or Homes for Ukraine Scheme.
To capture this would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of staffing levels within UK Visa and Immigration in the context of the refugee crisis arising from the war in Ukraine.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system. We actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand, including from pressures relating to Ukraine.
UKVI has redeployed caseworking staff in the UK to work seven days a week to process Ukraine applications, and has temporarily loaned in staff from other departments like HM Revenue and Customs to help manage demand.
The Home Office and the commercial provider operating our Visa Application Centres have also surged staff across Europe to meet demand, where we can offer over 13,000 appointments to visa applicants, and UKVI staff in the UK are working seven days a week to process applications.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her oral statement of 1 March 2022 on Humanitarian support for Ukrainians, whether the humanitarian sponsorship pathway route will be open to the immediate families of Ukrainian students studying in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This Government has made clear its support for Ukrainians fleeing in fear for their lives. We have brought forward a bespoke humanitarian support package for the people of Ukraine, having listened carefully to the Ukrainian Government.
The bespoke ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme allows individuals, charities, community groups and businesses in the UK to bring Ukrainians to safety. This includes those individuals with no family ties to the UK.
Ukrainian students in the UK will be able to register their interest to become a sponsor of a named individual to come to the UK, as long as they meet the sponsorship eligibility criteria.
All sponsors must be over the age of 18 and be able to provide accommodation for at least 6 months. For those who are not a British citizen, they must have leave to remain in the UK for at least 6 months so they have the ability to provide at least 6 months’ accommodation for those who they sponsor.
There will be no limit on the number of arrivals, and those who come to the UK on the scheme will have permission to live and work here for up to 3 years. They will also have access to healthcare, benefits, employment support and education.
For further information on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found here:
https://homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk/
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of current asylum programs and policies in place for Russians.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it, in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
All asylum claims lodged from within the UK, including those from Russian nationals, are given full and careful consideration so we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin. Protection is normally granted where a claimant has a well-founded fear of persecution under the Refugee Convention or their circumstances engage our obligations under Article 3 ECHR.
We are monitoring the situation in Russia. Every asylum claim made is carefully considered on its individual merits by assessing all the evidence provided by the claimant against a background of country information from a wide range of credible sources, including the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office, the media and non-governmental sources, such as the UNHCR, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the information available to call handlers supporting individuals looking for application updates via telephony services at HM Passport Office.
Answered by Kevin Foster
All Passport Adviceline call handlers have some access to passport application information, and customers can be transferred where more in-depth advice is needed.
We continue to work with our supplier to increase the number of call handlers who are dedicated to the Passport Adviceline and have the necessary access to passport application systems. This will help to ensure calls can be transferred in greater volumes, so more complex passport queries can continue to be answered in good time during periods of high customer contact.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of simplifying the acceptance of Premium Bonds as a form of cash saving for the process of meeting income thresholds when individuals are making Spousal Visa application.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Secretary of State has not held any recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of simplifying the acceptance of Premium Bonds as a form of cash saving for the process of meeting income thresholds.