Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Twelfth Report


Entry Clearance

53. One of the principal ways in which people come into contact with the Foreign Office and its staff is through its management of the United Kingdom's entry clearance service. The relevant chapter in the Annual Report 2003 on the Entry Clearance Services shows the increasing challenges faced by the FCO in this area.[80] In 2002, applications for visas increased by 9% worldwide to 1.94 million, with some of the busier posts, such as Moscow and Bangkok, seeing increases of up to 13%.[81] Given this significant increase, we were not surprised that the Annual Report recorded that the Office was unable to meet its Public Service Agreement (PSA) target of clearing 90% of all non-residence (or non-settlement) visa applications requiring an interview within 10 days, and that several larger posts, such as Lagos (Nigeria), did not meet targets for queuing times over the busy summer months.

54. In response to a written question from the Committee during the course of the inquiry, the Office told us that it had put in place a number of measures to address this issue:

  • the allocation of seasonal relief officers to Posts has been reviewed to ensure that resources are directed where pressure is greatest;
  • we are seeking to increase our "Floater" pool of Entry Clearance Officers to be able to respond quickly to unexpected increases in demand;
  • operational reviews are being prioritised to focus on Posts where waiting times are causing most concern;
  • our modernisation programme involving the streamlining of systems and procedures and the introduction of remote application methods such as couriers and application centres is designed to eliminate excessive queues in normal circumstances."[82]

We welcome these measures, and those that have been taken at a local level to tackle high demand at the busiest posts and look forward to a progress report in the next Annual Report.[83]

55. In his oral evidence to the Committee, Sir Michael Jay was very frank about the challenges the Entry Clearance Service faced at that time. He also told us that: "There will always be a small number of cases which, for one reason or another, go wrong; we will do our utmost to minimise those, through proper training programmes and also through making sure that we have got enough visa ECOs [Entry Clearance Officers] in the posts concerned."[84]He assured us, though, that the Office would make a "really good stab" at meeting its PSA targets, which had proved such an effective driver for improvement in the past.[85]

56. We conclude that the Foreign Office has undertaken a number of sound initiatives to respond to the unprecedented rise in visa applications in recent years. We record our thanks to those members of staff who work in this field, often in difficult and stressful conditions. We recommend that the Office continue to aspire to meet the challenging targets set in this area and to seek innovative solutions to the challenges it faces in dealing with the increasing demands on its operations.


80   Departmental Report, p 122 ff. Back

81   Ibid., p19-22 and Ev 54 Back

82   Ev 64, para 20 Back

83   Ev 64, para 21 Back

84   Q 80 Back

85   Q 82 Back


 
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