Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
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.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.
Full resource has now been restored to the team.
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 is for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
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.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.
Full resource has now been restored to the team.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the asylum transformation programme includes a commitment to reinstate the 6-month service standard for decisions on all straightforward asylum applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A new accelerated service standard is being developed and we are testing the impact of several coordinated initiatives, including enhanced screening, case triage, centralised workflow and streamlined decision templates, in order to improve productivity and increase decision rates.
To accelerate decision making we are simplifying and modernising our system. This includes measures like shortening interviews, removing unnecessary interviews, making guidance simpler and more accessible, dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded and extra decision makers.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the benefit cap on couples where one partner is in receipt of state pension and the other is a Universal Credit applicant.
Answered by Guy Opperman
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the benefit cap for couples where one partner is in receipt of state pension and the other is a Universal Credit applicant.
Answered by Guy Opperman
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of altering pension credit eligibility to award pension credit for couples where one partner is in receipt of state pension and the other is under state pension age.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Since May 2019, both members of a couple need to have reached State Pension age in order to be eligible for Pension Credit. This policy ensures that the same incentives to work and save apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age. Pension Credit is intended to provide long term support for pensioner households who are no longer economically active due to age. It is not intended to support people of working age.
We have no plans to change this policy.
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 progress her Department has made on implementing the (a) Asylum Accommodation and Support Transformation programme and (b) PACE pilot in Scotland.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
a - Asylum Accommodation and Support Transformation programme – The Home Office are looking to implement delivery plans in conjunction with our providers and Local Authorities to further support full dispersal.
b - PACE pilot in Scotland – As part of the Home Office Asylum Transformation programme, we are taking immediate action to bring the asylum backlog down with the nationwide rollout of a successful casework Pilot from Leeds. The aim of this is to improve asylum initial decision-making productivity, focussing on streamlining the decision-making process and reducing the time it takes to interview, consider and serve an asylum decision through a number of process improvements. The rollout of the PACE pilot to all Home Office sites is due to be complete by May 2023 and we will roll out the approach to our operational sites over the coming months.
To further accelerate decision making we will further drive productivity improvements by simplifying and modernising our system. This includes measures like shortening interviews, removing unnecessary interviews, making guidance simpler and more accessible, dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded and recruiting extra decision makers.
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 are outstanding pending an initial decision 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 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.