Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Office response to report on re-inspection of family reunion applications, published on 21 February 2023, and the accepted recommendation from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) to dedicate staffing resource to urgently address the work in progress (WIP) prioritising family reunion applications from children separated from both parents, how many full time equivalent decision maker posts (a) are already in place for family reunion applications and (b) will be created to implement that recommendation.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department has fully accepted all the recommendations made in the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration regarding family reunion applications.

Following the recommendations made, the department has already undertaken a review of its’ resourcing for consideration of Family Reunion visa applications, and we are currently in the process of increasing number of decision makers to speed up processing times.

Since 2015 we have granted approximately 45,000 family reunion visas to the family members of refugees. We prioritise all applications where the application has been made by an unaccompanied child, under the age of 18. We will also prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.