Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made a recent estimate of the number of post graduate international students unable to commence their course of studies in the UK due to delays in applications being processed under the Academic Technology Approval Scheme; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of delays in processing these applications on the UK's reputation as a destination for (a) international students and (b) academic research.

So far in 2022 we have received over 45,000 applications. We currently have 3382 applications under consideration, including those within the target processing time; the oldest outstanding application is 324 days. FCDO staff have regular meetings with the Higher Education Sector to discuss a variety of topics relating to the protection of sensitive research and that includes ATAS. In addition, FCDO works closely with other government departments to ensure that ATAS policy is fully understood and communicated in their conversations with the sector. It is not possible to make a calculation of the impact of delays to course start dates as a result of ATAS assessments because not all ATAS applications lead to a visa application and courses start throughout the year.