Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials in her Department are trained in (a) Hong Kong laws and (b) processing applications to settle in the UK.

Home Officials are fully trained in all aspects of the policy on deciding applications made under the British National (Overseas) immigration route. The BNO visa allows status holders and their eligible family members to live, work and study in the UK. The route provides a direct pathway to settlement (indefinite Leave to Remain) after five years.

Generally, the Home Office allocates sufficient resources to applications for indefinite leave to remain to ensure that the forecasted volume of applications can be decided within the timeframe of the published service standard.

With regards to the request for information on the specific number of officials who are processing applications to settle in the UK, this could only be provided at a disproportionate cost given the breadth of the ask. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work(opens in a new tab)) sets out: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”