Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average processing time is for a UK (a) European and (b) Global Health Insurance Card; and what steps he is taking to warn applicants of possible delays.

The mean processing time for Global Health Insurance Cards over the last six months was 2.2 days and the median was zero days. The mean processing time for new United Kingdom-issued European Health Insurance Cards over the last six months was 18.9 days and the median was one day. Both of these times are measured from the point at which the application was submitted until the card was issued.

Where applicants are asked to provide evidence to support their applications, the response time following provision of those documents is currently three working days.

The service is currently meeting these key performance indicators and there are no delays with card production or mailing. Consequently, applicants are not being informed that there are delays.