HC Deb 17 July 2003 vol 409 cc588-9W
Mr. Mudie

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when full visa facilities will be reintroduced in the Pakistan offices. [125284]

Mr. Mullin

My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary is monitoring developments in Islamabad closely and is personally committed to restoring a full entry clearance operation as soon as practicable.

He has authorised a number of steps that should increase the number of applications that Islamabad, which is handling applications for the whole of Pakistan, can accept.

These include: rapidly increasing the number of Entry Clearance Officers in Islamabad; a reorganisation of part of the visa section to speed up the processing of applications; an increase in the categories that can apply to include those that have travelled to the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and to fiancés applying to settle in the UK from October; UK visas taking the primary responsibility for correspondence regarding visa cases in Islamabad with immediate effect.

The Foreign Secretary will be writing to parliamentary colleagues to inform them of our plans imminently. He and I will, of course, continue to keep the situation under close review.