Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent staff her Department allocated to responding to hon. Members' enquiries on their constituents' immigration issues on 1 September (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014 and (d) 2015.

It is not possible to provide the Hon. Member with all the information requested as it is not readily available or held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

UKVI requires many of its staff, as part of their roles, to contribute to dealing with immigration enquiries from Members. This can include providing contributions to Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial briefing or for a Select Committee hearing.

Since 1 September 2015, UKVI has had dedicated MP Account Management teams whose job is to handle MP enquiries relating to their constituents. A total of 70 full-time equivalent staff are currently employed in these teams. Other members of staff will also contribute to the preparation of responses.

Published statistics confirm that UKVI’s service to Members has continually exceeded its service standard since Q4 2014. The Hon. Member can access this information at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-august-2015.