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Written Question
Visas: Graduates
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether UK Visa and Immigration is meeting the eight-week service standard for processing graduate visas.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

We are operating within the eight-week service standard for Graduate applications.

Some applications may take longer if we have requested further information, or if their personal circumstances are complex. Further details can be found at Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Immigration: Databases
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the number of individuals misidentified by the Home Office Person Centric Data Platform in the last 12 months.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Person Centric Data Platform (PCDP) holds millions of identities that have been submitted or otherwise provided in support of immigration applications. Individuals have not been ‘misidentified’ by the PCDP. Rather, the Home Office has for some time been aware of issues around ‘merged identity’ - where a single ‘identity island’ has been formed with data belonging to two or more individuals.

The ‘merged identities’ issue affects around 0.02% of PCDP customer records - over 99.98% of records are not impacted by this issue. We have identified around 46,000 records with an identity issue, of which over 13,000 have already been resolved and we have a dedicated team working on the remainder.

The Home Office takes data security and accuracy very seriously. We continue detailed analysis to identify erroneous PCDP records so that appropriate remedial work can be undertaken as quickly, and as carefully, as possible.

Where customers identify an issue with their data, we encourage them to contact the UK Visas and Immigration Contact Centre to enable this to be investigated and resolved.


Written Question
Immigration: Databases
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to rectify the misidentification of individuals by the Home Office Person Centric Data Platform.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Person Centric Data Platform (PCDP) holds millions of identities that have been submitted or otherwise provided in support of immigration applications. Individuals have not been ‘misidentified’ by the PCDP. Rather, the Home Office has for some time been aware of issues around ‘merged identity’ - where a single ‘identity island’ has been formed with data belonging to two or more individuals.

The ‘merged identities’ issue affects around 0.02% of PCDP customer records - over 99.98% of records are not impacted by this issue. We have identified around 46,000 records with an identity issue, of which over 13,000 have already been resolved and we have a dedicated team working on the remainder.

The Home Office takes data security and accuracy very seriously. We continue detailed analysis to identify erroneous PCDP records so that appropriate remedial work can be undertaken as quickly, and as carefully, as possible.

Where customers identify an issue with their data, we encourage them to contact the UK Visas and Immigration Contact Centre to enable this to be investigated and resolved.


Written Question
Armed Conflict: Visas
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential merits of enabling (a) Palestinian civilians in Gaza and (b) other people living in war zones to apply for a visa without visiting a visa application centre.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The Foreign Secretary meets regularly with the Home Secretary to discuss relevant policy matters between the two departments. Visa applications can be started online at any time. Applicants are required to enrol their biometrics in a Visa Application Centre (VAC) as part of the visa application process to support identity assurance and suitability checks on foreign nationals who are subject to immigration control. Foreign national dependents of British citizens who are travelling from Gaza to Egypt and require visas to come to the UK can apply online and then visit the Visa Application Centre in Cairo or Alexandria to provide their biometric information. Further advice on travelling to Egypt from Gaza is available at: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/israel. The FCDO Consular Contact Centre can be contacted on 020 7008 5000.

There are no plans to authorise entry clearance without biometrics for visa applications from Palestinian civilians in Gaza and or other people living in war zones. Palestinians in Gaza who want to apply for a UK visa but are not a dependent of a British National are not currently eligible for FCDO assistance.


Written Question
Visas: Gaza
Friday 8th March 2024

Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Gaza have arrived in the UK following a successful application for a family visa as a (a) spouse, (b) partner, (c) fiancé, (d) child, (e) parent, (f) relative providing care of a British citizen, (g) settled resident and (h) person with protection status since 7 October 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number of people in Gaza who are awaiting results of applications for family visas does not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.

Transparency data is however published quarterly on Gov.uk and includes data on the outcomes of visas issued on family routes, although this does not necessarily equate to entering the UK once granted leave.

The latest transparency data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Visas: Gaza
Friday 8th March 2024

Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Gaza are awaiting results of applications for family visas as a (a) spouse, (b) partner, (c) fiancé, (d) child, (e) parent, (f) relative providing care of a British citizen, (g) settled resident and (h) person with protection status who applied (i) on or (ii) before 7 October 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number of people in Gaza who are awaiting results of applications for family visas does not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.

Transparency data is however published quarterly on Gov.uk and includes data on the outcomes of visas issued on family routes, although this does not necessarily equate to entering the UK once granted leave.

The latest transparency data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Visas: Palestinians
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for visas for Palestinian nationals were (a) rejected and (b) approved in (i) October 2023, (ii) November 2023, (iii) December 2023, (iv) January 2024 and (v) February 2024.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office does not publish data at the level of detail requested, however, we do publish data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work and sponsored study visas granted are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.

Every attempt is made to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.

The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab).

The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Visas: Gaza
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Gaza are awaiting the results of their applications for a visa as a dependant of someone in the UK on a (a) work and (b) student visa, who applied (i) on and (ii) before 7 October 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office does not publish data at the level of detail requested, however, we do publish data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work and sponsored study visas granted are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.

Every attempt is made to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.

The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab).

The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Visas: Palestinians
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas for Palestinian nationals (a) are being processed, (b) have been approved and (c) have been rejected since 1 October 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office does not publish data at the level of detail requested, however, we do publish data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work and sponsored study visas granted are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.

Every attempt is made to meet the service level agreement standard, but in certain cases additional checks are required which can mean visa requests take longer to process.

The latest data on performance against service standards is published through migration transparency data and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab).

The Home Office also publishes information on visa processing times for applications inside and outside the UK at: Visa processing times - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Visas: Skilled Workers
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of Skilled Worker visas were issued to people classified as new entrants eligible for employment at reduced minimum salary thresholds in the most recent 12 months for which data is available.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office publishes data on sponsored work visas by occupation in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on work visas granted, by occupation, are published in table Occ_D02 of the sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset. Applications classified as ‘new entrants’ form a subset of this dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to 2023 Q4.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.