Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in the earnings threshold for overseas workers on the care sector.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
I refer the Honourable Gentlemen to the Home Secretary’s written ministerial statement on 30 July 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the increase in the earnings threshold for overseas workers on the higher education sector.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
I refer the Honourable Gentlemen to the Home Secretary’s written ministerial statement on 30 July 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the increase in the earnings threshold for overseas workers on the food and drink sector.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
I refer the Honourable Gentlemen to the Home Secretary’s written ministerial statement on 30 July 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the safety of UK citizens who have been asked to travel to Sudan with family members as part of their visa application processes.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The FCO advise UK citizens against all but essential travel to the majority of Sudan and all travel to some parts of Sudan. They further advise that if a UK citizen is in Sudan, they should consider carefully whether their need to remain is essential and consider leaving the country by commercial means.
There is no requirement for UK Citizens to travel to another country as part of a family member’s visa application process. Furthermore, whilst some entry clearance applications should be made in the country or territory in which the applicant is living, there is discretion to allow an application to be made in another country in exceptional circumstances.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what future funding his Department plans to provide to Fife Migrants Forum.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
According to our financial records the Home Office has never made a payment to Fife Migrants Forum. As of 28 February 2019, no decisions have been taken to provide funding to Fife Migrants Forum.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding his Department has provided to Fife Migrants Forum.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
According to our financial records the Home Office has never made a payment to Fife Migrants Forum.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas from (a) businesses (b) UK Government Departments and (c) the Scottish Government in Scotland were rejected as a result of the cap on Tier 2 visas for skilled non-European workers in (i) December 2017, (ii) January 2018 and (iii) February 2018.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The specific information that has been requested is not included in statistics published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department makes a comparative assessment of salary differentials in different parts of the UK in respect of granting visas for skilled non-European workers.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Immigration is a reserved matter. The Government considers the needs of the UK as a whole and is committed to developing an immigration system that serves the national interest.
Applying different immigration rules to different parts of the UK would complicate the immigration system, harming its integrity, and cause difficulties for employers who need the flexibility to deploy their staff to other parts of the UK.
The independent Migration Advisory Committee has repeatedly recommended that we should not operate different salary thresholds for different regions and countries in the UK.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department made of salary differentials in the different parts of the UK for visas for skilled non-European workers in (a) December 2017, (b) January 2018 and (c) February 2018.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Immigration is a reserved matter. The Government considers the needs of the UK as a whole and is committed to developing an immigration system that serves the national interest.
Applying different immigration rules to different parts of the UK would complicate the immigration system, harming its integrity, and cause difficulties for employers who need the flexibility to deploy their staff to other parts of the UK.
The independent Migration Advisory Committee has repeatedly recommended that we should not operate different salary thresholds for different regions and countries in the UK.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether UK Visas and Immigration expedites cases in which an applicant’s entry to the UK via air may be restricted due to pregnancy before the case is resolved.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
While UKVI’s published timescale for processing standard visa applications is 12 weeks (60 working days) for settlement applications, and three weeks (15 working days) for non-settlement applications the option of appling for a priority visa service is available to applicants should time be a factor in their applications.
Those applications made under the priority service will be placed to the front of the processing queue and expedited. However, it should be noted that timescales for decision are not guaranteed. If there is a problem with an application or it is complex and expected to take longer than the standard processing timescale, UKVI will write to the customer within the standard processing time and explain what will happen next.