Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much revenue was generated by the charge for overseas customer emails enquiries related to UK visa and immigration updates in each year since 2017.

The £2.74 email charge is levied to fund the commercial contract. The UK government believes it is right those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting its costs. Those who use the services are predominantly from outside the UK, with GOV.UK providing the main source of information and advice, free of charge.

The Home Office uses SITEL UK Ltd for the provision of Contact Centre Services (UK and International) including overseas customer email enquiries. Further details of the financial arrangement in place between the Home Office and SITEL UK Ltd including revenue generated by email enquiries, is not available due to it being commercially sensitive.