Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what safeguards her Department has put in place to ensure that out-of-country entry clearance applications are rigorously checked and processed.

All out of country entry clearance applications are subject to an extensive range of mandatory and discretionary checks.

These include, but are not limited to, identity, travel document verification, searches against national and international police records and against previous Immigration history. But biographic and biometric checks can also be made.

Applications are then assessed against the Immigration Rules. Decision quality is assured both by local managers and as part of the overall Departmental audit and assurance framework. Further assurance is provided by regular third party inspections and audits.