Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 September 2022 to Question 49740 on Members: Correspondence, what assessment she has made of the efficiency of transferring the responsibility for redacting detailed communications from a Government department to teams in MPs' offices.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The use of single letters to MPs covering multiple cases is a temporary measure, but an integral part enabling us to respond effectively to the record number of enquiries over the past two years.
Once the department has returned to meeting it’s 20-day service standard the use of these letters will cease.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the MP Account Management Team response to the backlog of MPs' enquiries through individual telephone calls or meetings.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Face to face engagement events and telephone surgeries are integral parts of both improving the service we provide for MPs, and enabling us to respond effectively to the record number of enquiries over the past two years. We have received positive feedback from MPs who have accessed this service and been responding to requests to provide it. It is our aim to clear the backlog by the end of February 2023, and we are currently tracking above forecast.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether issuing bulk response emails, including details of a number of different constituents, to enquiries which have exceeded the 20 working day service standard is GDPR compliant.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The bulk response approach is compliant with GDPR guidelines. As is standard practice, MP’s offices will be expected to ensure that they only share any information obtained from the department with the relevant constituent to ensure compliance.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford may have to wait until February 2023 for responses to enquiries sent to her Department in spring 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Performance against target has been impacted by an unprecedented increase in MP’s queries following the Afghan evacuation, Ukraine crisis and HMPO application surge.
The department has launched a recovery plan which will lead to incremental improvements in service standards over the coming five months with a return to a 20-day service standard by March 2023.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the MP Account Management Team in her Department will be able to accept telephone enquiries for cases which do not relate to urgent passport or Ukraine visa applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The MP Account Management Team (MPAM), via the MP Enquiry Line, already accept telephone queries for all cases.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding eligibility for British National (Overseas) Passports to British National (Overseas) visa holders who do not hold such passports, in order to allow them to receive British consular support when abroad and to be considered as Commonwealth citizens.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A person is eligible for a British passport if HMPO can confirm their nationality and identity. Only British nationals are eligible for British passports.
Registrations for BN(O) status closed on 1 July 1997 and, as such, no new applications can now be made.
We have no plans to allow BN(O) status to be acquired by descendants of BN(O) status holders or people who have BN(O) visas. BN(O) status cannot be passed on to children.
British National (Overseas) visa holders are eligible to apply for British citizenship if they can meet the requirements, including having resided in the UK for a minimum period and being free from immigration control at the time of their application.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the service standard time is for processing visa applications from (a) Afghan and (b) Ukrainian refugees as of 30 June 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
There are no published service standards for processing visa applications for Afghanistan and Ukrainian refugees.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for a biometric residence card as of 8 June 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We aim to deliver a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) within 7 working days of the immigration decision.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what records her Department holds on (a) asylum claims, (b) British passport applications and (c) biometric residence card applications that are undecided as of 8 June 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data of its performance against its service level agreement, which can be found on the GOV.UK webpage: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what record her Department holds of applications for biometric residence cards received in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021 that were issued within the service standard time.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data of its performance against its service level agreement, which can be found on the GOV.UK webpage: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)