Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect on the willingness of an applicant for a same sex spouse/partner visa to submit the application of the processing of that application being out-sourced to a local company; and whether applications may be allowed to bypass that local company in certain circumstances.

Commercial Partners have no involvement in visa decision-making, which is undertaken by UKVI Decision Makers only, and are unable to influence a visa decision outcome in any way.

Where Commercial Partners provide front end services to UKVI customers, customers also have the option of either uploading their supporting documents prior to their appointment or having these scanned by a commercial partner representative during the appointment.

UK Visas and Immigration also monitor the performance of the Commercial Partners who deliver services on behalf of the Home Office to ensure they comply with contractual service standards on applicant confidentiality, including providing equal treatment to all customers through The Equality Act 2010.