Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November to Question 105275, what routes are included in the other category referred to in the data for in-country extensions included in that Answer.

Information regarding the routes included in the ‘Other’ category are included in notes for table Exe_01 ‘Grants of an extension of stay in the UK, by category of extension’ available from Immigration Statistics, year ending June 2020 at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/list-of-tables#extensions

The ‘Category of leave group’: ‘Other’ includes discretionary leave, long residence, parents of children at school, stateless leave, other reasons and cases where the category of grant has not been recorded. ‘Other’ also includes extensions granted to individuals who are unable to travel home because of travel restrictions or self-isolation related to coronavirus (COVID-19) as detailed in the notes to summary table Exe_01. A more detailed breakdown is available in the ‘Category of leave sub group’ variable in the published detailed dataset.

As indicated in the commentary accompanying extensions data in Immigration Statistics, year ending June 2020, the increase in the number of extensions granted in Q1 2020 compared to Q4 2019 reflects extensions granted under the separate policy for those currently unable to return home due to COVID-19 (63,048 grants up to the end of March 2020).