Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of enabling people to take the Life in the UK test virtually during the covid-19 pandemic

During Covid 19 we have been working closely with all our providers to restart the provision of our services. The knowledge of Life in the UK (LitUK) service reopened on 1st June 2020 in England only. This service recommenced with processes to ensure social distancing and health and safety measures are in place. Consideration of opening test sites in the rest of the United Kingdom is pending decisions by the individual devolved authorities.

We have previously considered remote testing and prior to the award of the recent contract. Remote testing was not considered appropriate as anti-fraud measures have to be maintained at all times to protect the integrity of the test.

We may however consider remote testing in the future as and when suitable technology is available and we are confident the integrity of tests can be maintained.