Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent staff in her Department were processing visa applications for Ukrainian refugees during the weeks commencing (a) 7, (b) 14, (c) 21 and (d) 28 March 2022.

We have received thousands of applications submitted to one of the fastest and largest visa programmes in UK history.

We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system. We actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet caseworking demand of the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme which we have launched in response to the refugee crisis.

The Home Office and the commercial provider operating our Visa Application Centres have surged staff across Europe to meet demand and UKVI staff in the UK are working seven days a week to process applications.

To capture the detailed information on staff numbers and hours worked would incur disproportionate cost.