Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of streamlining visa arrangements for musicians, performers, and other cultural professionals working between the UK and the EU.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK immigration system is generous in its provisions for musicians, performers and other cultural professionals, with different pathways for non-visa nationals (such as EU/EEA nationals) in the creative sector to come to the UK without requiring a visa. We continually keep our policies under review and the Government has committed to supporting touring artists at the UK-EU summit in May last year.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the backlog is for EU Settlement Scheme applications and reviews.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Processing times for the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) are available on EU Settlement Scheme: current estimated processing times for applications - GOV.UK
The latest published data on EUSS applications is contained within the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’
The most recent statistics relate to the year ending 30 September 2025.
A total of 8,662,309 EUSS applications had been submitted, and 8,550,572 applications had been concluded. This equates to 98.7% of all EUSS applications submitted by the end of September 2025 having been concluded.
The information requested for administrative reviews made against EUSS application decisions is not currently available from published statistics and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual cost is of providing student loan financing to students who are not UK citizens; and whether she has made an estimate of the potential impact of restricting student loan eligibility to British citizens on costs to her Department.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Higher education student finance is targeted on those persons with a lawful and substantial residential connection to the UK. To qualify, most persons must be ‘settled’ in the UK. There are limited exceptions to this, such as for individuals granted international protection by the Home Office, for example persons with refugee status, who may be eligible for support without meeting the standard residency and settlement criteria.
In the 2024/25 academic year, the Student Loans Company (SLC) made payments totalling £3,794 million for Fee and Maintenance Loans (full-time and part-time) to undergraduate students domiciled in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the EU who declared they were non-UK nationals.
Previous PQs have reported figures based on nationality as declared when creating a student finance account, rather than the verified status at loan approval. The SLC has robust procedures in place to check eligibility for student finance, including data-sharing with the Home Office and HM Passport Office. Eligibility is dependent on a successful identity check, immigration status and residency history. No funding is approved without complete, verified, and eligible nationality, status and residence history.
The department has not made any estimate of costs on the potential impact of restricting student loan eligibility to British citizens.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what basis they have amended immigration rules in respect of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to enable EUSS status holders to obtain an EUSS (Family) Travel permit from outside the United Kingdom without updating their UK Visas and Immigration account.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Changes to the EUSS travel permit (in Appendix EU (Family Permit)) were laid on 9 December and will come into force on 30 December. They enable all EUSS status holders to obtain an EUSS travel permit where they are unable to update their UK Visas and Immigration account, for example with the details of a new travel document, from outside the UK. This will help ensure EUSS status holders are not refused boarding by a carrier, or do not experience further difficulties when Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) are enforced from 25 February 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the the3Million report The Digital Status Crisis, published on 10 November; and whether they plan to increase resources to fix the failures of the current eVisa system.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We consistently monitor the transition to eVisas, and encourage people to report any issues so they can be addressed. We listen to feedback from visa holders, stakeholders and MPs and address concerns, such as introducing greater flexibility for carriers to accept BRPs that expired on 31 December 2024 until 1 June 2025, to smooth the transition for those travelling internationally without compromising on border security.
We have considered the3Million report ‘The Digital Status Crisis’. We welcome feedback, but do not recognise the picture that the3Million report presents regarding the eVisa transition or the figures they present. In total, we have issued over 10 million digital IDs in the form of eVisas. Over 4.5m online (UKVI) accounts were created between March 2024 and July 2025, enabling people to access their eVisa.
We recognise that some people will be anxious about switching to and navigating a digital system, or may encounter an issue. We are committed to ensuring that accessing and using eVisas is as straightforward as possible for all status holders. We are providing clear guidance and direct support for vulnerable, and less digitally confident people to help them.
The Home Office has a robust support model in place that strives to ensure that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported to access their eVisa and use the View and Prove service. People who need support can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre, which provides support via email and webchat to those creating their UKVI account, and telephone support to those using the online immigration status services. This includes supporting users through the online journey by:
o helping them to access or recover their account
o helping them to update their personal details
o sharing status on behalf of users if they are unable to do so themselves
Employers and landlords in England can use the Employer Checking Service (ECS) and Landlord Checking Service (LCS) to check the status of people who cannot currently provide digital status evidence.
Status holders can also get help to access their eVisa from Grant Funded Organisations or Local Authorities, or through the Assisted Digital Service if they are digitally excluded.
We have increased the number of support services available to vulnerable people and have delivered £4m of grant funding to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK.
An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed on the first phase of the roll out of eVisas to EEA nationals on 9 November 2020, which built on the Policy Equality Statement (PES) for the EUSS which was produced in 2017 and published on the gov.uk website on 18 November 2020:
A separate EIA considering equalities issues in relation to the use of digital only right to work and rent checks was published on gov.uk in June 2022:
We are also in the process of reviewing our eVisas EIA, setting out further analysis of the equalities issues to reflect the current stage in the roll out of eVisas, and we will continue to keep the issue under review.
The Department publishes a range of data on its digital status programme and will be, in due course, publishing management information on the volumes of eVisa error corrections webforms received.
All our digital status online services are designed to be compliant with relevant accessibility legislation. The design and development of the View and Prove service was completed and tested in line with accessibility standards within WCAG 2.2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), and the accessibility statement is linked on the service. It is currently compliant in 53 of 57 categories, and work is ongoing to meet the remaining criteria early in 2026, whereupon the Accessibility Statement will also be refreshed. View and Prove itself is not assessed against the UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework, but the underlying services follow the principles of the framework.
The accessibility statements for the employer and landlord checking services are available here:
Accessibility statement for Employer’s Checking Service – Employer checking service – GOV.UK
The View and Prove service is part of the wider delivery of the Government’s eVisa strategy within the Future Borders and Immigration System Programme. It is one of many Digital Status Services, and the Programme is still delivering significant new functionality in support of all these services, which is why it is currently in a Beta phase. We aim to move the View and Prove service from Beta into Live status once these enhancements have been delivered in mid/late 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to conduct an independent review of the eVisa system; and whether they will increase transparency on the volume and range of errors of the eVisa system reported to the Home Office.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We consistently monitor the transition to eVisas, and encourage people to report any issues so they can be addressed. We listen to feedback from visa holders, stakeholders and MPs and address concerns, such as introducing greater flexibility for carriers to accept BRPs that expired on 31 December 2024 until 1 June 2025, to smooth the transition for those travelling internationally without compromising on border security.
We have considered the3Million report ‘The Digital Status Crisis’. We welcome feedback, but do not recognise the picture that the3Million report presents regarding the eVisa transition or the figures they present. In total, we have issued over 10 million digital IDs in the form of eVisas. Over 4.5m online (UKVI) accounts were created between March 2024 and July 2025, enabling people to access their eVisa.
We recognise that some people will be anxious about switching to and navigating a digital system, or may encounter an issue. We are committed to ensuring that accessing and using eVisas is as straightforward as possible for all status holders. We are providing clear guidance and direct support for vulnerable, and less digitally confident people to help them.
The Home Office has a robust support model in place that strives to ensure that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported to access their eVisa and use the View and Prove service. People who need support can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre, which provides support via email and webchat to those creating their UKVI account, and telephone support to those using the online immigration status services. This includes supporting users through the online journey by:
o helping them to access or recover their account
o helping them to update their personal details
o sharing status on behalf of users if they are unable to do so themselves
Employers and landlords in England can use the Employer Checking Service (ECS) and Landlord Checking Service (LCS) to check the status of people who cannot currently provide digital status evidence.
Status holders can also get help to access their eVisa from Grant Funded Organisations or Local Authorities, or through the Assisted Digital Service if they are digitally excluded.
We have increased the number of support services available to vulnerable people and have delivered £4m of grant funding to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK.
An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed on the first phase of the roll out of eVisas to EEA nationals on 9 November 2020, which built on the Policy Equality Statement (PES) for the EUSS which was produced in 2017 and published on the gov.uk website on 18 November 2020:
A separate EIA considering equalities issues in relation to the use of digital only right to work and rent checks was published on gov.uk in June 2022:
We are also in the process of reviewing our eVisas EIA, setting out further analysis of the equalities issues to reflect the current stage in the roll out of eVisas, and we will continue to keep the issue under review.
The Department publishes a range of data on its digital status programme and will be, in due course, publishing management information on the volumes of eVisa error corrections webforms received.
All our digital status online services are designed to be compliant with relevant accessibility legislation. The design and development of the View and Prove service was completed and tested in line with accessibility standards within WCAG 2.2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), and the accessibility statement is linked on the service. It is currently compliant in 53 of 57 categories, and work is ongoing to meet the remaining criteria early in 2026, whereupon the Accessibility Statement will also be refreshed. View and Prove itself is not assessed against the UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework, but the underlying services follow the principles of the framework.
The accessibility statements for the employer and landlord checking services are available here:
Accessibility statement for Employer’s Checking Service – Employer checking service – GOV.UK
The View and Prove service is part of the wider delivery of the Government’s eVisa strategy within the Future Borders and Immigration System Programme. It is one of many Digital Status Services, and the Programme is still delivering significant new functionality in support of all these services, which is why it is currently in a Beta phase. We aim to move the View and Prove service from Beta into Live status once these enhancements have been delivered in mid/late 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what accessibility assessments have been conducted of the View and Prove immigration status service; whether they will publish those assessments; and whether those assessments meet the standards of the UK digital identity and attributes trust framework.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We consistently monitor the transition to eVisas, and encourage people to report any issues so they can be addressed. We listen to feedback from visa holders, stakeholders and MPs and address concerns, such as introducing greater flexibility for carriers to accept BRPs that expired on 31 December 2024 until 1 June 2025, to smooth the transition for those travelling internationally without compromising on border security.
We have considered the3Million report ‘The Digital Status Crisis’. We welcome feedback, but do not recognise the picture that the3Million report presents regarding the eVisa transition or the figures they present. In total, we have issued over 10 million digital IDs in the form of eVisas. Over 4.5m online (UKVI) accounts were created between March 2024 and July 2025, enabling people to access their eVisa.
We recognise that some people will be anxious about switching to and navigating a digital system, or may encounter an issue. We are committed to ensuring that accessing and using eVisas is as straightforward as possible for all status holders. We are providing clear guidance and direct support for vulnerable, and less digitally confident people to help them.
The Home Office has a robust support model in place that strives to ensure that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported to access their eVisa and use the View and Prove service. People who need support can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre, which provides support via email and webchat to those creating their UKVI account, and telephone support to those using the online immigration status services. This includes supporting users through the online journey by:
o helping them to access or recover their account
o helping them to update their personal details
o sharing status on behalf of users if they are unable to do so themselves
Employers and landlords in England can use the Employer Checking Service (ECS) and Landlord Checking Service (LCS) to check the status of people who cannot currently provide digital status evidence.
Status holders can also get help to access their eVisa from Grant Funded Organisations or Local Authorities, or through the Assisted Digital Service if they are digitally excluded.
We have increased the number of support services available to vulnerable people and have delivered £4m of grant funding to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK.
An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed on the first phase of the roll out of eVisas to EEA nationals on 9 November 2020, which built on the Policy Equality Statement (PES) for the EUSS which was produced in 2017 and published on the gov.uk website on 18 November 2020:
A separate EIA considering equalities issues in relation to the use of digital only right to work and rent checks was published on gov.uk in June 2022:
We are also in the process of reviewing our eVisas EIA, setting out further analysis of the equalities issues to reflect the current stage in the roll out of eVisas, and we will continue to keep the issue under review.
The Department publishes a range of data on its digital status programme and will be, in due course, publishing management information on the volumes of eVisa error corrections webforms received.
All our digital status online services are designed to be compliant with relevant accessibility legislation. The design and development of the View and Prove service was completed and tested in line with accessibility standards within WCAG 2.2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), and the accessibility statement is linked on the service. It is currently compliant in 53 of 57 categories, and work is ongoing to meet the remaining criteria early in 2026, whereupon the Accessibility Statement will also be refreshed. View and Prove itself is not assessed against the UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework, but the underlying services follow the principles of the framework.
The accessibility statements for the employer and landlord checking services are available here:
Accessibility statement for Employer’s Checking Service – Employer checking service – GOV.UK
The View and Prove service is part of the wider delivery of the Government’s eVisa strategy within the Future Borders and Immigration System Programme. It is one of many Digital Status Services, and the Programme is still delivering significant new functionality in support of all these services, which is why it is currently in a Beta phase. We aim to move the View and Prove service from Beta into Live status once these enhancements have been delivered in mid/late 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the View and Prove immigration status service is labelled as a beta service; and what is the timeline for that service to be in a fully live stage.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We consistently monitor the transition to eVisas, and encourage people to report any issues so they can be addressed. We listen to feedback from visa holders, stakeholders and MPs and address concerns, such as introducing greater flexibility for carriers to accept BRPs that expired on 31 December 2024 until 1 June 2025, to smooth the transition for those travelling internationally without compromising on border security.
We have considered the3Million report ‘The Digital Status Crisis’. We welcome feedback, but do not recognise the picture that the3Million report presents regarding the eVisa transition or the figures they present. In total, we have issued over 10 million digital IDs in the form of eVisas. Over 4.5m online (UKVI) accounts were created between March 2024 and July 2025, enabling people to access their eVisa.
We recognise that some people will be anxious about switching to and navigating a digital system, or may encounter an issue. We are committed to ensuring that accessing and using eVisas is as straightforward as possible for all status holders. We are providing clear guidance and direct support for vulnerable, and less digitally confident people to help them.
The Home Office has a robust support model in place that strives to ensure that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported to access their eVisa and use the View and Prove service. People who need support can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre, which provides support via email and webchat to those creating their UKVI account, and telephone support to those using the online immigration status services. This includes supporting users through the online journey by:
o helping them to access or recover their account
o helping them to update their personal details
o sharing status on behalf of users if they are unable to do so themselves
Employers and landlords in England can use the Employer Checking Service (ECS) and Landlord Checking Service (LCS) to check the status of people who cannot currently provide digital status evidence.
Status holders can also get help to access their eVisa from Grant Funded Organisations or Local Authorities, or through the Assisted Digital Service if they are digitally excluded.
We have increased the number of support services available to vulnerable people and have delivered £4m of grant funding to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK.
An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed on the first phase of the roll out of eVisas to EEA nationals on 9 November 2020, which built on the Policy Equality Statement (PES) for the EUSS which was produced in 2017 and published on the gov.uk website on 18 November 2020:
A separate EIA considering equalities issues in relation to the use of digital only right to work and rent checks was published on gov.uk in June 2022:
We are also in the process of reviewing our eVisas EIA, setting out further analysis of the equalities issues to reflect the current stage in the roll out of eVisas, and we will continue to keep the issue under review.
The Department publishes a range of data on its digital status programme and will be, in due course, publishing management information on the volumes of eVisa error corrections webforms received.
All our digital status online services are designed to be compliant with relevant accessibility legislation. The design and development of the View and Prove service was completed and tested in line with accessibility standards within WCAG 2.2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), and the accessibility statement is linked on the service. It is currently compliant in 53 of 57 categories, and work is ongoing to meet the remaining criteria early in 2026, whereupon the Accessibility Statement will also be refreshed. View and Prove itself is not assessed against the UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework, but the underlying services follow the principles of the framework.
The accessibility statements for the employer and landlord checking services are available here:
Accessibility statement for Employer’s Checking Service – Employer checking service – GOV.UK
The View and Prove service is part of the wider delivery of the Government’s eVisa strategy within the Future Borders and Immigration System Programme. It is one of many Digital Status Services, and the Programme is still delivering significant new functionality in support of all these services, which is why it is currently in a Beta phase. We aim to move the View and Prove service from Beta into Live status once these enhancements have been delivered in mid/late 2026.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment has been made of adequacy of the (a) support and (b) guidance available for those who are unable to access their e-visas.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office has a robust support model in place that strives to ensure that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported to access their eVisa and use the View and Prove service:
We have delivered £4.4m of grant funding across 18 months to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK to support customers who needed help transitioning from a physical document to an eVisa.
People who need support can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre, which provides support via email and webchat to those creating their UKVI account, and telephone support to those using the online immigration status services. This includes supporting users through the online journey by:
o helping them to access or recover their account
o helping them to update their personal details
o sharing status on behalf of users if they are unable to do so themselves
Should anyone find themselves needing support with creating their UKVI account or getting access to their eVisa, the latest updates and guidance can be found on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/evisa.
Employers and landlords in England can use the Employer Checking Service (ECS) and Landlord Checking Service (LCS) to check the status of people who are having difficulty providing digital status evidence.
An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed on the first phase of the roll out of eVisas to EEA nationals on 9 November 2020, which built on the Policy Equality Statement (PES) for the EUSS which was produced in 2017 and published on the gov.uk website on 18 November 2020:
A separate EIA considering equalities issues in relation to the use of digital only right to work and rent checks was published on gov.uk in June 2022:
We are also in the process of reviewing our eVisas EIA, setting out further analysis of the equalities issues to reflect the current stage in the roll out of eVisas, and we will continue to keep the issue under review.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of allowing individuals to provide a physical proof of residency for applications under the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office seeks to process all applications to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) as swiftly as possible.
Details of the processing times can be found on the GOV.UK website – (EU Settlement Scheme: current estimated processing times for applications - GOV.UK) which advises on expected processing times and common reasons why an application may take longer to conclude.
As it is now more than four years since the deadline to apply to the main scheme, the majority of applications are from people who already hold an initial grant of pre-settled status who are seeking settled status. To improve customer service we have introduced an automated process to automatically convert eligible pre-settled status holders to settled status, without the need for them to make a further application.
The EUSS automation process reduces the burden on tens of thousands of customers and supports our ambition to ensure people have the right EUSS status.
The EU Settlement Scheme was the first fully digital immigration route. As such, customers provide evidence to support their applications online, rather than sending in physical evidence. This approach ensures that applicants can retain their key documents.