Contributions
1,459 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDHomes for Ukraine: Visa Application CentresThe hon. Gentleman will not be surprised to hear that the Government take a different view. It is for each country to decide its policy based on the intelligence and the…28 Apr 2022HANSARDHomes for Ukraine: Visa Application CentresI have already outlined why we have the visa requirement, although in the case of children, that is more focused on safeguarding the children. There is a real issue, particularly…28 Apr 2022HANSARDHomes for Ukraine: Visa Application CentresI thank the hon. Member for her question. Certainly, we would point people towards some of the more recognised charities that are offering matching services, rather than just…28 Apr 2022HANSARDImpact of the Ending of Freedom of Movement on the Adult Social Care Sector: Independent ReviewToday, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published its independent review into the impact of the ending of freedom of movement on the adult social care sector. This report…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsCertainly, colleagues in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office regularly engage with our European friends about the rules and about entry, particularly into the…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsI am sorry to hear of the hon. Lady’s experience. As already touched on a number of times in this UQ, I accept that the current performance of the advice lines for members of the…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsI thank the hon. Member for her kind comments about the staff in the Belfast passport office, following on from the similar comments of the hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsAgain, let us go back to what we have already said: 4.7 million texts were sent out last year; 1 million passports were issued last month—a record amount; more staff are being…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsCertainly, if the application is over 10 weeks and the family are due to travel, I know that the Passport Office will be happy to expedite that and resolve it. It sounds like…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsAdvising people to apply strikes me as good advice if people are planning a holiday. I am pleased to note that since that advice was given we have seen more applications coming in…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsTo the latter part, yes. I am happy to have the details. As I have said, in terms of processing times, between January and March, more than 90% of cases were completed within six…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsWell, what we are going to do is on top of what we have already done in increasing staffing numbers and increasing production to record levels of more than a million in one month.…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsIt might be worth discussing the specifics afterwards, depending on how badly damaged the passport is, but I suspect we need to look at dealing with that compassionately, as it is…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsI can confirm that we have increased staff numbers by 500 since April 2021, and we are in the process of recruiting another 700. As of 1 April, there were more than 4,000 staff in…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsVery happy to. It sounds rather different from the issues of surge and the other areas we are talking about, if it has been going on since June 2021, but I am very happy to pick…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsThere has been some significant engagement on performance and improvement with FedEx, the parent company of TNT, which does most of our delivery. Given the surge in demand, we…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsObviously we are sorry to hear of the circumstances. There are issues sometimes with issuing passports overseas, particularly where, for example, there have been local…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsI am certainly happy to pick up the point. Certainly if it has been going on since January, I suspect we are now beyond the 10 weeks, and something should be done. Obviously I do…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsAgain, I am happy to pick up separately the particular case. As I have touched on, the 10-week standard is there, and we have not had to expedite many cases beyond 10 weeks. I…27 Apr 2022HANSARDHM Passport Office BacklogsIt does sound as though something has gone rather wrong there, given that, as I said, back in mid-January the demand was not as high as it became in mid-March. We saw a very…27 Apr 2022