§ Mr. David Youngasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average period of time persons in the Indian sub-continent have to wait from the time of application to the issue of an entry certificate to the United Kingdom; and if he will publish the figures for each high commission or embassy.
§ Mr. RaisonThe regularly published information on waiting times relates to the time between the receipt of the application and the first interview for persons dealt with at the end of each quarter. The quarterly Home Office statistical bulletin "Control of immigration statistics" gives figures for the main settlement queue for Dacca, new Delhi and Islamabad. Some additional information is given in the following table:
Months waited by a person interviewed at the end of the third quarter of 1982 Main settlement queue* Husband/fiance queue Bangladesh Dacca 16 — India Bombay 17 17 New Delhi 14½ 17 Pakistan Islamabad 14 14 Karachi 14 14 *All missions have arrangements under which they grant earlier interviews to certain categories.