Appendix 2
S.I. 2020/966
Immigration and Nationality (Replacement of Tier 4 and Fees) and Passport (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2020
1.At its meeting on 14th October 2020, the Committee requested a memorandum to explain the following points:
“In relation to the amendments made by regulations 21 to 23, given that neither the priority visa service nor the priority settlement service is provided by reference to a specific target period, and that both purport to process applications “on an expedited basis” only, explain:
(1) what is intended to constitute a shorter processing period for the purposes of the super priority visa service;
(2) by what benchmark the Home Office and applicants will be able to assess whether the super priority service has been delivered (as opposed to the priority service); and
(3) what costs and/or other factors are covered by the significantly higher fee retained for the super priority service (having regard to the matters raised in questions (1) and (2) and the removal of the 24-hour target).”
2.The Department’s response is as follows:
Question (1). References in Schedule 7, 9 and 10 to the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 (“the 2018 Regulations”) to the “super priority service” cover particular services offered to applicants by the Home Office falling within the descriptions in the definitions in those Schedules. As things stand, each of the “super priority services” referred to offers the processing of applications within 24 hours, which is a shorter processing period than that offered under the “priority settlement service” and the “priority visa service”. There has been no change to that. However, the Department considers it unnecessary for the 2018 Regulations to specify the precise service standards offered, so long as the definitions make clear the distinction between the three kinds of priority service. For example, the fees in 17.1.1 and 17.1.2 in Table 17 in Schedule 6 to the 2018 Regulations do not describe the service levels under the respective services. The current 24 hour processing target for the “super priority service” presents operational difficulties in some cases caused by relative time differences between the place where the applicant is located and the place where the decision about the application is made. Consideration is being given to changing that processing period to “by close of next working day” or another very short timeframe so that it can cater for those operational issues and enable the service to be extended to more locations. However, the service standard remains unchanged at present.
Question (2). The references to the “priority settlement service”, the “priority visa service” and the “super priority service” cover services offered by the Home Office and falling within the descriptions in the definitions of those expressions. Applicants apply under a chosen service, which has service standards published on www.gov.uk. Those services standards are the benchmark against which it may be assessed whether the service in question has been delivered. Performance data is published as part of quarterly transparency reports.
Question (3). As explained above, the processing target for the “super priority service” offered by the Home Office is still 24 hours. The Department is of course mindful that when setting the amount of any fee under section 68 of the Immigration Act 2014 there is an exhaustive list in subsection (9) of the matters to which the Secretary of State may have regard. There has been no change in that assessment in relation to the fee currently specified. However, the fee will be kept under review as and when consideration is given to altering the processing target under the “super priority service”.
Home Office
20 October 2020
Published: 6 November 2020