Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the technical resilience of the e-visa system; whether she has made a recent assessment of the implications for her policies of the experience of (a) identification requirements for members of the Windrush generation and (b) other recent data-related incidents.

eVisas have been tried and tested over several years, and millions of people in the UK already use them to prove their immigration status.

We have designed our digital services to be highly resilient, with rigorous testing to build assurance, and deployed across multiple data centres. Our online services and their constituent parts are also proactively monitored for failures, which will highlight any potential problems to allow support teams to triage and resolve them as quickly as possible.

We are constantly working to improve the accuracy, reliability and accessibility of our digital status services, including the View and Prove service which people can use to view their status and share it with third parties, such as an employer or a landlord. This includes proactive work to enhance the service as well as resolving issues reported to us by customers.

The View and Prove platform is rigorously tested for security and stability and proven to be reliable in terms of availability.

We understand that people may have concerns about proving their status in the absence of a physical document and are conscious in particular of the experiences of the Windrush generation. We are committed to ensuring that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported to create a UKVI account, access their eVisa and share their status, in particular where they do not hold a BRP.

We will create UKVI accounts for all new applicants with no valid ID documents, and all applicants applying under the Windrush Scheme.

Legacy document holders (such as those with passports containing ink stamps or a vignette sticker confirming indefinite leave to remain) can transition to eVisas by making a free No Time Limit application. They will still retain their legacy documents and be able to prove their rights in the same way as they can now. More information on this process is available at www.gov.uk/eVisa. People who no longer have their legacy document can also make a No Time Limit application to transition to an eVisa. They will be additionally asked to enrol their biometrics as part of the application process.

Successful visa applicants receive written confirmation by email or letter that they have been granted permission, which they can keep for their personal records. Where this document cannot be used as evidence of their status, these printed documents can be used when interacting with the Home Office should any subsequent issues be encountered with their eVisa. Customers may also wish to print out their eVisa profile page if they would like a physical version for their own records.

Those who have previously been issued a BRP but no longer have it (and have no valid passport to verify their identity), can create a UKVI account by using the ‘Get access to their eVisa’ pages on GOV.UK. As part of the process, they will be redirected to a webform to provide their personal information and will then be invited to attend a video interview to verify their identity. Following ID verification, they can expect to receive their UKVI account log in details within 14 days (10 working days) of the video interview.