Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of spousal visa applications that are awaiting determination; what plans she has to reduce any backlog; and what timescale she expects any backlog to be eliminated.

The Home Office is currently prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Data is not published on the number of applications which are outstanding. The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Staff from other government departments, including DWP and HMRC, are being surged into the Home Office to help with Ukraine work and enable other normal visa routes to return to normal service levels.