Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications awaiting an initial decision have been pending for more than one year in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications awaiting a decision can be found in table Asy_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. Please note the data show 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 2022. Data as at 31 December 2022 will be published on 23 February 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Please note data in table Asy_D03 is broken down by applications awaiting an initial decision for 6 months or less, and longer than 6 months only.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications awaiting an initial decision have been pending for more than six months in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications awaiting a decision can be found in table Asy_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. Please note the data show 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 2022. Data as at 31 December 2022 will be published on 23 February 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Please note data in table Asy_D03 is broken down by applications awaiting an initial decision for 6 months or less, and longer than 6 months only.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2022 to Question 13114 on Asylum and Passports: Applications, how many and what proportion of asylum decision makers hired since the start of 2022 have completed the (a) foundation training and (b) mentoring period as part of the asylum transformation programme.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Asylum Transformation programme aims to bring the asylum system back into balance and modernise it. It is focused on increasing productivity by streamlining, simplifying and digitising the system to speed up processes and increase efficiency and output.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of Turkish Businessperson visa extension application decisions have taken over 6 months in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications are currently outstanding; and how many of those have been waiting for more than 6 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for Further Leave to Remain (Family and Private Life) applications in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The average processing times for Further Leave to Remain (Family and Private Life) applications are listed on the GOV.UK website at
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visa-decision-waiting-times-applications-inside-the-uk
Customers applying for leave to remain as a spouse or partner (on the 5-year route to settlement), or as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner, will usually receive a decision on their application within 8 weeks.
There are no standard processing times for customers applying for leave to remain as a partner, parent or on the basis of private life (10-year routes to settlement or 5-year parent route to settlement). The average wait time for a decision is currently 11 months although there may be circumstances which result in some applications taking longer.
Current published data regarding all application routes can be found on the GOV.UK website at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q2-2022
and at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/managed-migration-datasets
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the processing time for Family Visas.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As such earlier this year the service standard for family entry clearance applications was changed from 60-days to 120-days as a direct result.
The bulk of resource has now returned to the route, along with an additional investment of new staff.
We are keeping the service standard level under review.
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will respond to the correspondence of 11 March 2022 from the hon. Member for Glenrothes on routes to settlement for Afghan refugees, reference PG5604.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office received the Member’s correspondence on 3 March 2022 and responded on 8 March 2022.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the average time taken for a standard spouse visa to be processed.
Answered by Kevin Foster
the Home Office would only be able to get the data via a manual trawl which would be at a disproportionate cost.