§ Mr. GorrieTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to(a) speed up his Department's handling of applications for passports and visas and subsequent appeals and (b) to improve the handling of related complaints from hon. Members. [61085]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe UK Passport Agency provides passport services for British nationals in the United Kingdom, and I have set the following service standard target for 1998–99
132WTo process properly completed straightforward applications within a maximum of 15 working days in April, and 10 working days for the remainder of the year.In seeking to meet this target, the Agency will give priority to customers' travel needs, aiming to meet declared travel dates for at least 99.99 per cent. of passports issued.The Agency's turnround times have slipped beyond this target on a number of occasions this year, but customers' urgent travel needs have been met.
The Passport Agency has an internal target of dealing with correspondence, including complaints from hon. Members, in a maximum of 10 working days, and this target has been met on 90 per cent. of occasions.
As regards applications for British citizenship, these are currently taking longer to consider than I would wish. Unfortunately, the spending plans we inherited from the previous Government, together with the increased pressures on the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, arising from increased passenger numbers arriving at our sea and airports and the numbers claiming asylum, mean that we do not have the financial resources to devote greater effort to citizenship work. This will change next year when we start to put into effect our plans for immigration and nationality work, which should result in twice as many decisions being taken and waiting times coming down significantly.
In relation to immigration appeals, the Immigration and Nationality Directorate published a consultation paper on the appeals system on 13 July. We are now considering responses and will bring forward our legislative proposals for accelerating procedures in the current session of Parliament.
On visas, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is responsible for the operation of the Entry Clearance service overseas, is committed to providing a fair, fast and firm entry clearance service to all visa applicants. Entry clearance officers in overseas posts are required to take decisions on as many straightforward non-residence visa applications as they can within 24 hours. The target set for this in 1998–99 is 87 per cent. rising to 90 per cent. by 2001–2.
Within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Migration and Visa Correspondence Unit (MVCU) handle complaints from hon. Members about visa matters. I understand that the staffing of MVCU has been reinforced over the last year, and improvements made to their procedures, in an effort to provide a better service.