Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 218042, what licences were awarded to which companies testing English language skills in connection with visa applications for travel to the UK in the last five years.

In April 2011 this Government introduced a requirement that certain immigration routes required a Secure English Language Test (SELT) as evidence of English language ability. When SELTs were introduced in 2011, 5 providers were licensed to provide SELTs for Immigration purpose. These were Trinity, Pearson, Cambridge, City & Guilds and ETS. All of these providers were already providing English language tests for certain immigration purposes prior to
2011. In December 2012 a sixth provider, Cambridge International Examinations, was added as an approved SELT provider for UK Immigration purposes.