Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the costs of an application (1) for limited leave to remain, and (2) to extend limited leave to remain, are calculated; by how much the costs of such applications have increased in percentage terms since 2015; and why those costs have increased.
The unit costs of immigration and nationality fees are the calculated estimate of the full financial cost for providing each route/service, including direct costs and relevant local and central overheads (e.g. accommodation, HR, Finance and IT), plus depreciation, cost of capital employed, and other wider system costs that are incurred in connection with immigration and nationality activity.
The approach the Home Office uses to calculate the published unit costs for all UK visa, immigration and citizenship services takes into account the entire forecast cost of the relevant chargeable functions, including all related indirect costs. Weightings are then used, based on operational business planning data, to apportion the total cost across the range of services and products.
Unit costs may be influenced by changes in the way that applications in certain routes are processed from year to year, for example where additional checks are introduced or required, or by changes elsewhere within the overall system which impact on the weighting calculations and therefore the amount apportioned to any individual service.
With regard to percentage increases, the Home Office publishes a complete list of fees and unit costs for all application types. This can be viewed via the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-fees-transparency-data
Additionally, the link below sets out all the fees that have been in operation since 2015.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table
When setting fees, the Home Office takes into account the cost of processing the application, the wider cost of running Border, Immigration and Citizenship (BIC) system and the benefits the Home Office believes are likely to accrue from a successful application.
Application fees have increased in recent years as the Home Office aims to reduce the overall level of funding that comes from general taxation.