Asked by: Anum Qaisar (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a temporary visa scheme to allow people affected by the earthquake in (a) Syria and (b) Türkiye to travel to the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government has no plans to implement specific schemes for those impacted by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Existing visa routes for those wishing to come to the UK are available.
The UK continues to provide lifesaving and emergency support, coordinating closely with the Turkish government and United Nations in Syria to ensure our support meets the needs on the ground and that we can stay responsive to emerging needs.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce an emergency visa route for Syrian and Turkish people affected by the earthquakes with family members in the UK.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Government has no plans to implement specific schemes for those impacted by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria to join family members in the UK. Existing visa routes for those wishing to come to the UK are available.
The UK continues to provide lifesaving and emergency support, coordinating closely with the Turkish government and United Nations in Syria to ensure our support meets the needs on the ground and that we can stay responsive to emerging needs.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to start a visa scheme, similar to that introduced for Ukrainians in 2022, for the people from Turkey and Syria who are homeless following the earthquakes in those countries.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Government has no plans to implement specific schemes for those impacted by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, existing visa routes for those wishing to come to the UK are available.
The UK continues to provide lifesaving and emergency support, coordinating closely with the Turkish government and United Nations in Syria to ensure our support meets the needs on the ground and that we can stay responsive to emerging needs.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department will take steps to offer visitor and family reunion visas to people impacted by the February 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and Syria.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK government continues to support people who have relatives impacted by the horrific natural disaster in Turkey and Syria. This includes supporting British nationals and those who are either settled or have refugee or humanitarian protection status in the UK.
Where family members do not have a current UK visa, they can apply online via one of our available standard visa routes (including visitor or family reunion as appropriate). Biometrics can be submitted at the nearest Visa Application Centre (VAC).
Decision making teams are still processing visa applications from Turkey and for people living in Syria and so existing visa services continue to be available.
We continue to prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has plans to take steps to implement a Family Scheme Visa for people in (a) Türkiye and (b) Syria who have family in the UK and have been left homeless following earthquakes in February 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government has no plans to implement specific schemes for those impacted by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, existing visa routes for those wishing to come to the UK are available.
The UK continues to provide lifesaving and emergency support, coordinating closely with the Turkish government and United Nations in Syria to ensure our support meets the needs on the ground and that we can stay responsive to emerging needs.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to prioritise visa applications for the relatives of UK citizens and residents affected by the recent earthquake in Turkey.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK government continue to support British nationals with relatives impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Where family members do not have a current UK visa, they can apply online via one of our standard visa routes, which remain available, and biometrics can be submitted at the nearest Visa Application Centre (VAC).
UKVI will aim to process any compassionate cases as quickly as possible in line with current guidance.
Should individual circumstances require a quicker decision, customers should flag this with visa application centre staff when submitting their biometrics and UKVI will consider this as part of their wider application.
If customers have an existing visa application and have been impacted by the earthquake, then they should please contact the UKVI Contact Centre, details can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards. Resource has now been restored to the ECAA team.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.
Full resource has now been restored to the team.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.
Full resource has now been restored to the team.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the culling and death of birds grown for the festive season due to avian flu on demand for poultry workers.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The scale of Avian Influenza outbreaks occurring in the UK, Europe and globally this year is unprecedented and we recognize the impact this has had on the poultry industry, particularly the turkey sector. However, the British poultry sector is highly resilient and there is no immediate threat to the food supply chain. Demand for poultry workers via the Seasonal Workers visa route is less than anticipated this year due primarily to the AI outbreak. This will not affect the 2,000 visas allocated to the seasonal poultry sector in 2024.