Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress of the transition to eVisas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Millions of people have been successfully using eVisas for several years. They are a key part of our digital immigration system and will enhance people’s experience and increase the immigration system’s security and efficiency. eVisas are secure and cannot be lost, stolen or tampered with, unlike a physical document. They can be accessed anywhere and in real time. As of 30 November 2024, over 3 million people had created UKVI accounts, with many more creating accounts every day.
We have considered every part of the transition to eVisas and how people experience the system, listening to feedback from visa holders, stakeholders and MPs, and monitoring to identify where people are experiencing issues so that these can be addressed. We are continually streamlining and adapting our processes to ensure a smooth transition to eVisas.
There is no deadline for registering for a UKVI account to access an eVisa, although we have been encouraging people to do so before their BRP expires so that they can continue to prove their immigration status easily. If a person has not yet created an account, they can still do so now, quickly and easily, using their expired BRP if needed.
We recognise that some people are vulnerable and require additional support in switching to and navigating a digital system. That is why we have a range of support measures in place, including:
We are confident that our systems and processes will ensure no one is disadvantaged by the move to digital, but we are conscious that some people remain concerned about the transition, particularly in the context of travel. We have therefore brought in changes to reflect those concerns, including, as a temporary measure to reassure people that they will be able to travel without any issue during the transition period, allowing carriers such as airlines to accept a BRP or EUSS BRC which expired on or after 31 December 2024 as valid evidence of permission to travel, provisionally until 31 March 2025. This will be kept under review. We have also introduced a new 24/7 passenger helpline for passengers who are at port and travelling imminently.
We continue to monitor the rollout of eVisas and will ensure that any issues are resolved for those people affected.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people had Section 67 leave to remain on 14 March 2024; how many and what proportion of those people had been contacted by his Department to discuss their options for when their leave expires by 14 March 2024; and what guidance his Department has issued on the options available to people when their Section 67 leave expires.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Section 67 leave is a form of leave introduced in the Immigration Rules for eligible children transferred to the UK under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016.
The Home Office has not published data on how many people had Section 67 leave to remain on 14 March 2024.
The Immigration Rules are clear that individuals with Section 67 leave can apply for indefinite leave to remain once their leave to remain ceases, provided they meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules. Individuals can also seek advice from an independent legal representative about their options.
The published guidance for Section 67 leave can be found here: Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 asylum casework guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk). The Home Office is currently in the process of updating that guidance and will publish a revised version in due course.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 16 January 2024 to Question 9201 on Biometric Residence Permits, how many and what proportion of applicants have been waiting more than 28 days following a decision for a biometric residence permit production request.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
At the point a decision is made to grant permission to remain, a BRP is automatically requested by the caseworking system and data is sent to DVLA for the BRP to be produced. Any automatic requests that become “stuck” when sent to DVLA are targeted and proactive reporting is being developed to identify such cases earlier.
During 2023 DVLA produced 99.6% of BRPs within 24 hours of this automatic request process and 100% within 48 hours.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum applications from applicants in Newport East constituency that were submitted before June 2022 are awaiting a final decision.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on applications awaiting a decision is published in table Asy_10a of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that this information is not broken down by local authority, nor the date by which the application was submitted.
The Home Office publishes data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement local authority data’ detailed datasets. Information on asylum seekers who are not claiming support is not available by local authority. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. Additionally, the data shows a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2023. Data as at 31 December 2023 will be published on 29 February 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress his Department has made in resolving the technical issues affecting the issuing of Biometric Residence Permit cards.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Incidences of technical issues preventing BRP card production are extremely low, and no systemic issues have been identified.
Where individual card requests do fail, operational case working teams and IT Support endeavour to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
For any case that cannot be resolved immediately, the Employer Checking and Landlord Checking Services are available to provide support to customers to verify their immigration status and permission to work and rent properties in the UK.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applicants have been waiting more than 28 days for a biometric residence permit.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
BRPs are produced at the secure delivery facility within 48 hours of the production request being made and are collected by our secure delivery partner the same day. Our secure delivery partner aims to attempt to deliver the BRPs within 48 hours of receipt of the BRPs. This equates to a minimum of 5 working days from the date of the production request being made to delivery of the BRP. We have added an additional 2 working days to the timeline advised to applicants to allow us to resolve any production issues.
During 2023, 99.6% of BRPs were produced within 24 hours of the production request and 100% within 48 hours. In 2023, our Secure Delivery Partner attempted to deliver over 99% of BRPs within 48 hours.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for asylum submitted before 28 June 2022 are awaiting processing.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on applications awaiting an initial decision that were raised before 28 June 2022 can be found in table Asy_10a of the ‘asylum and resettlement summary tables’. The latest data relate to 30 June 2023. Data for 30 September 2023 will be published on 23 November 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applicants that were eligible for the Streamlined Asylum Processing Questionnaire returned their application within 30 working days in each month since its introduction.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The information requested is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applications to the Voluntary Returns Service were processed in each month between January 2021 and July 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
We do not routinely publish the information you have requested.
The Home Office publishes statistics on all types of removals from the UK which includes voluntary departures. The latest statistics are available at:
Immigration statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Published datasets for Voluntary Returns are available at:
Returns and detention datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Returns data is published quarterly and the most recent publication provides information on return volumes to the end of Q1 2023.
Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The voluntary return category includes returns which are categorised as assisted and controlled. This includes such returns processed by all Home Office units, including the Voluntary Returns Service.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up on the termination of asylum support following asylum decisions.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Strategic Oversight Group, established in December 2022, is a cross-HMG group (along with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) and is co-chaired with the LGA Chief Executive. This group allows dialogue between national and local government within asylum and resettlement.
We continue to work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and local government, to mitigate asylum accommodation pressures. Additionally, we work with the Department for Work & Pensions to ensure those asylum seekers granted leave to remain can access benefits promptly.