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1140977

registered interest
date	22/07/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations he has received on the efficiency of the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services online appointment booking system; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Riverside
tabling member printed	Dame Louise Ellman
uin	280157
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2019 answer text <p>Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) monitors the performance of the UKVCAS website and regularly reviews feedback from customers to ensure the website meets their needs and expectations.</p><p>So far, since service inception in November, the following improvements have been made to the online booking system:</p><p><br>- more detailed information in the FAQs section to help customers resolve problems <br>- improved visibility of appointments by expanding the number of locations that customers can view from four to eight. <br>- extended period for customers booking appointments from four to six weeks for core service points and from two to four weeks for enhanced service points.</p> answering member constituency South Ribble answering member printed Seema Kennedy grouped question UIN 280162 question first answered 31/07/2019 15:27:16 answering member 4455 label Biography information for Seema Kennedy
tabling member	484 label Biography information for Dame Louise Ellman

1141020

registered interest
date	22/07/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to improve the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services online appointment bookings system; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Riverside
tabling member printed	Dame Louise Ellman
uin	280162
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2019 answer text <p>Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) monitors the performance of the UKVCAS website and regularly reviews feedback from customers to ensure the website meets their needs and expectations.</p><p>So far, since service inception in November, the following improvements have been made to the online booking system:</p><p><br>- more detailed information in the FAQs section to help customers resolve problems <br>- improved visibility of appointments by expanding the number of locations that customers can view from four to eight. <br>- extended period for customers booking appointments from four to six weeks for core service points and from two to four weeks for enhanced service points.</p> answering member constituency South Ribble answering member printed Seema Kennedy grouped question UIN 280157 question first answered 31/07/2019 15:27:16 answering member 4455 label Biography information for Seema Kennedy
tabling member	484 label Biography information for Dame Louise Ellman

1132975

registered interest
date	18/06/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Sopra Steria’s delivery of the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS), what assessment he has made of the (a) availability of free appointments and length of waiting times for applicants, (b) affordability of paid appointments for applicants and (c) the affordability of the pay-per-minute UKVCAS helpline.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Withington
tabling member printed	Jeff Smith
uin	266266
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2019 answer text <p>As part of their bid and delivery programme, Sopra Steria Limited (SSL) undertook market research to identify initial service locations and this included the impact on customer travel time, cost and accessibility.</p><p>There are currently six core sites across the UK at which application submission services are offered free of charge and beyond that, SSL offer a range of enhanced services in a further 52 locations. 62% of customers will, on average, have to travel less than 25 miles to visit a core service centre, with 78% travelling less than 50 miles.</p><p>UKVCAS offers customers the option to arrange an appointment at any of its core service points, located in Croydon, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast. The UKVCAS core service points offer appointments up to 35 days in advance. Free appointments are available Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 16:00, any appointments outside these times, and those at enhanced service points, are subject to a charge. The charges for these services were based on the extensive customer research SSL completed as part of their bid. SSL will continue to review prices in light of customer insight and demand.</p><p>We are aware that customers are currently experiencing difficulties in securing free appointments and this is resulting in them having to wait longer for an appointment. New appointments are released by SSL on a daily basis and UKVI continue to work with SSL to increase the number of appointments available to its customers through opening new service points and increasing the number of appointments available at its existing service points experiencing high demand.</p><p>In relation to your concern around the cost of the UKVCAS support line, this is an added value service which is optional to customers who wish to find out more information about the application service. Customers who do not wish to avail of this chargeable service, may also contact SSL via their website, where they can choose from two options “make an enquiry” or “make a complaint”. Once a customer has booked an appointment, they will also be provided with a local rate 0330 number on their booking confirmation.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 21/06/2019 11:32:44 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4456 label Biography information for Jeff Smith

1131344

registered interest
date	11/06/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service centres and enhanced service points across the UK have sufficient capacity to handle the increase in demand that will result from the student surge period in September 2019.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
uin	263147
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2019 answer text <p>UKVI officials meet with Sopra Steria Limited (SSL) on a regular basis to review performance and drive improvements to service standards. We are aware that there are issues with capacity at the moment which means customers might not always be able to book an appointment at their earliest convenience.</p><p>We are working with SSL as a matter of priority on a number of actions to increase the capacity at service points and we expect availability to increase shortly. These measures include; four additional enhanced service points in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh over the last month, increasing appointments offered to customers across a number of existing sites and reducing the cost of out of hours appointments.</p><p>Planning is underway with Sopra Steria and we are looking at a range of options to ensure that there is sufficient capacity within the service to meet demand during the student Autumn surge period.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 17/06/2019 10:30:43 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1128512

registered interest
date	23/05/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of UK settlement visa applicants that paid for the priority service received a response within his Department's deadline.
tabling member constituency	Hackney South and Shoreditch
tabling member printed	Meg Hillier
uin	257700
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>Information on in country premium service applications for settlement visas and processing performance against service standards is published in the Migration Transparency data, table InC07, latest edition at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-may-2019." target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-may-2019</a></p><p>Information on overseas premium service applications for settlement visas and processing performance against service standards are not published in the International Operations Transparency data, but the number of out of country settlement applications received and processed within service standards is published in table Visa_01, which can be found here <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019</a></p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 04/06/2019 11:54:11 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	1524 label Biography information for Dame Meg Hillier

1126807

registered interest
date	15/05/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of visa applications that have been delayed as a result of his Department's investigations into Life in the United Kingdom testing centres in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Bristol South
tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
uin	254840
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>Providing the information requested would require a manual check of individual records which could only be done at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 22/05/2019 13:07:39 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth

1122425

registered interest
date	23/04/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many days has no appointment with the UK Visa and Citizenship Applications Service been available outside of London since November 2018.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	246576
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2019 answer text <p>Sopra Steria pledge to offer applicants the option to arrange an appointment within five days at any of our core service points, located in Croydon, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast. UKVI continue to work closely with Sopra Steria to review appointment availability across all locations.</p><p>Data on the number of days that no appointments have been available in UK Visa and citizenship applications service centres outside of London since November 2018 is not readily available. This information could only be provided by interrogation of individual service centres on a day by day basis, which could only be achieved at disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 29/04/2019 13:38:24 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1122426

registered interest
date	23/04/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the effect is on an immigration application of the applicant being unable to book a mandatory appointment with the UK Visa and Citizenship Applications Service as a result of no available appointments within a reasonable distance.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	246577
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2019 answer text <p>UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service Centres are run by Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) on behalf of UK Visas &amp; Immigration (UKVI). There are six core sites across the UK at which enrolment services must be offered and beyond that, SSL offer a range of enhanced services, expanding biometric enrolment services to 51 other locations in line with their assessment of customer demand. SSL aims to offer all customers an appointment at their chosen location within five working days.</p><p>New appointments are released by SSL on a daily basis and UKVI continue to work with SSL to increase the number of appointments available to its customers through opening new service points and increasing the number of appointments available at its existing service points experiencing high demand.</p><p>Where an applicant in the UK who at the time of making an application has leave to enter or remain and the application to extend or vary is not decided before the person’s existing leave expires, section 3C extends the person’s existing leave until the application is decided (or withdrawn). Therefore, any delay in obtaining an appointment date will not affect an in-time application if biometrics are enrolled.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 29/04/2019 13:45:43 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1121509

registered interest
date	11/04/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for UK visas are received for processing on average each day in (a) Pretoria, (b) Abuja, (c) Lagos, (d) Accra, (e) Croydon and (f) Sheffield decision making hubs.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	244083
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2019 answer text <p>The available published information relates to all entry clearance visa applications received per quarter, by nationality of the applicant, which is published on a quarterly basis as part of the Home Office’s publication scheme, in the Home Office’s ‘Immigration Statistics’, Visas data tables volume 1, table vi_02_q, latest edition at</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/list-of-tables#visas" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/list-of-tables#visas</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 24/04/2019 12:31:06 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

1121511

registered interest
date	11/04/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Visas: Applications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average number of decisions made on visa applications was on each day in the decision-making hubs in (a) Pretoria, (b) Abuja, (c) Lagos, (d) Accra, (e) Croydon and (f) Sheffield.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	244084
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2019 answer text <p>The available published information relates to all entry clearance visa applications received per quarter, by nationality of the applicant, which is published on a quarterly basis as part of the Home Office’s publication scheme, in the Home Office’s ‘Immigration Statistics’, Visas data tables volume 1, table vi_02_q, latest edition at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/list-of-tables#visas." target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/list-of-tables#visas.</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 244086 question first answered 23/04/2019 10:48:48 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah