Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of exemption to the rules preventing anyone previously sentenced to more than 12 months in custody from obtaining visas for performing artists who have had clean records for the past 10 years.

The Immigration Rules in this area are aligned with the long-standing automatic deportation threshold for individuals who have received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, as set out in the UK Borders Act 2007. In exceptional circumstances, a visa may be granted, but that has not been a common practice since the passage of the 2007 Act.