Overseas Students: English Language

(asked on 22nd June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take towards students affected by the TOEIC fraud cases in light of the judgement handed down from the Upper Tribunal in respect of RK and DK, reference [2022] UKUT 00112.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 27th June 2022

On 25 March 2022, the Presidential Panel of the Upper Tribunal, concluded in their determination that: “It is amply sufficient to prove the matter on the balance of probabilities, which is the correct legal standard… we do not consider that the evidential burden on the respondent in these cases was discharged by only a narrow margin (as in SM and Qadir v SSHD)”.

In view of this, we do not believe there is a need to make any major change in our approach to ETS cases.

We believe the changes the Home Office has made since 2019 have already brought significant redress this includes grant leave to many who might have otherwise been refused.

The Department will now look to update the casework guidance in light of RK and DK to ensure applicants are signposted to their right to obtain the voice recording of their TOEIC test from ETS. We believe, in light of the Upper Tribunal’s findings, this to be fairest and most objective way in which an individual can challenge the allegation before them.

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