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Written Question
Visas: Sudan
Wednesday 24th April 2019

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Fife Migrants Forum: Finance
Tuesday 12th March 2019

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Fife Migrants Forum: Expenditure
Friday 15th February 2019

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Visas: Skilled Workers
Friday 23rd February 2018

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Visas: Skilled Workers
Friday 23rd February 2018

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Visas: Skilled Workers
Friday 23rd February 2018

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Immigration
Monday 5th February 2018

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

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.


Written Question
Immigration
Wednesday 31st January 2018

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken is for (a) accepted and (b) declined priority applications to be resolved by UK Visas and Immigration in each of the last 3 years.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

Published data on visa processing times, including the percentage of visas processed within published service standards, is published online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’).


Written Question
Passports: British National (Overseas)
Wednesday 15th November 2017

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many British National Overseas passports have been issued in each year since 1997.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The table below shows the number of British National Overseas passports

printed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office between January 1997 and 30 September 2017.

British National Overseas Passports Printed

1997

12,090

1998

3,881

1999

6,250

2000

5,624

2001

139,159

2002

116,345

2003

81,690

2004

79,107

2005

46,801

2006

37,392

2007

17,347

2008

8,905

2009

8,737

2010

8,039

2011

7,654

2012

10,933

2013

15,338

2014

22,022

2015

26,027

2016

37,501

2017*

15,458

*Data is up to September 2017


Written Question
Passports: British National (Overseas)
Friday 20th October 2017

Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - North East Fife)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many valid British National Overseas passports are currently in issue.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The number of valid British National Overseas passports in circulation as of 31 of December 2016 was 152,351.