Post
by dial2all » Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:54 am
hope it will help you guys....................
As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request will be
reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you remain
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dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the Information
Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
Paul Dickie
North West Correspondence Team
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Annex to FOI 24107
1. Why does UK Border Agency not send the biometric invitation letter with the
acknowledgement letter and why is UK Border Agency taking 6 to 8 weeks time to send
a Biometric invitation letter for 10years Long residence ILR Set (O) application?
All letters are issued in line with the overall target of deciding 95% of applications within six
months.
2. (a) Could you give a exact breakdown (actual numbers) of application received between
1st January 2012 and 31st August 2012 under ‘10 years continuous legal stay in UK’
indefinite leave to remain category and how many of these applications (actual numbers
were decided within 6 months?
For the period from 1 January to 30 June 2012 a total of 3,631 SET (O) applications on the
basis of 10 years long residence were received. Of these 3,070 were processed within 6
months.
Notes
(1)
The figures quoted are management information which has been subject to internal quality checks.
(2)
Data relates to main applicants only.
(3)
Data relates to postal applications only.
Figures for SET (O) applications received from 1 July to 31 August will be published on 29
November 2012.
As this data constitutes a subset of data intended for future publication, I have decided not to
communicate the requested data to you at this time, pursuant to the exemption under section
36(2)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The use of this exemption requires consideration of whether it is:
Reasonable in all the circumstances not to produce the information until on or after 29
November 2012, and
Whether in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption
stated above outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
This is a two stage test but the central issue is whether in all the circumstances it is
reasonable and in accordance with the public interest to require you to wait until November
2012.
We recognise there may be a public interest in producing this information for you now and that
this may also weigh in favour of it being unreasonable to make you wait until November 2012.
We have considered the following:
It is important that the public have access to immigration statistics. Home Office staff are
required to handle requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, not least to
assure them that this legislation is being fully implemented.
But there are also public interest reasons for maintaining the exemption to the duty to
communicate which weigh in favour of it being reasonable to require you to wait until 29
November 2012. We have considered the following:
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Publication would undermine Home Office established pre-publication procedures, which
includes internal consultation about the final statistics being established on the Home Office
website, and also being able to use its staff resources effectively in a planned way so that
reasonable publication timetables are not affected.
After balancing these conflicting arguments, we have concluded not only that it is reasonable
to require you to wait until 29 November 2012, but also that the balance of the public interests
identified favours maintaining the exemption. This is not least because we believe that in this
case the overall public interest lies in favour of ensuring that the Home Office is able to plan its
publication of information in a managed and coherent way, and this would not be possible if
immediate disclosure were made.
2
(b) What is the average waiting time after 6 months (e.g. waited 7 or 8 months)
For the applications received between 1 January and 30 June 2012 that took longer than 6
months to process, the average processing time was 187 calendar days.
Notes
(1)
The figure quoted is management information which has been subject to internal quality checks.
(2)
Data relates to main applicants only.
(3)
Data relates to postal applications only.
(4)
Processing time is based on the average number of days between the case creation and decision
despatched date.
2
(c) What is exact breakdown of number of cases which UKBA took more than 6 months
to decide between the period 1st January 2012 and 31st August 2012?
Of the applications received between 1 January and 30 June 2012, 4 cases took longer than 6
months to process
Notes
(1)
The figure quoted is management information which has been subject to internal quality checks.
(2)
Data relates to main applicants only.
(3)
Data relates to postal applications only.
2
(d) What was the average time as well as maximum time taken to decide cases which
fall in the remaining 5% that do not get a decision within 6 months of their ILR
applications?
The average processing time for the applications received between 1 January and 30 June
that took longer than 6 months to process, was 187 calendar days. Of these the maximum
processing time was 195 calendar days.
Notes
(i)
The figures quoted are management information which has been subject to internal quality checks.
(ii)
Data relates to main applicants only.
(iii)
Data relates to postal applications only.
(iv)
Processing time is based on the average number of days between the case creation and decision
despatched date.
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2
(e) How does UK Border Agency claim that 95% of decisions are taken within 6
months?
This is the service standard which UK Border Agency seeks to achieve across the board for all
types of settlement application.
3
(a) How many caseworkers (actual numbers) are exclusively dealing with '10 year
continuous legal stay ILR applications in UK Border Agency?
None deals exclusively with this type of application, caseworkers deal with all types of ILR
application.
(b) How many cases is each caseworker assigned?
We do not hold this information.
4
Are there any internal targets set by the UKBA as to how many minimum numbers of
applications of '10 year continuous legal stay ILR should be dealt by caseworkers, on
an average, at the UKBA every day?
Targets vary and are set internally depending upon the nature of the cases involved.
5
What is the criterion when deciding the sort of cases of '10 years continuous legal stay'
ILR that normally fall in a category that are to dealt within six months and cases which
normally take more than 6 months to arrive at a decision?
I can confirm that information on the criteria for deciding applications is held by the UK Border
Agency. However, I have decided not to communicate this information to you, pursuant to the
exemption under section 31(1) (e) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This allows us to
exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the operation of the
immigration and nationality (including settlement) decision making process.
If we were to disclose this information it could substantially prejudice the operation of our
procedures. This is because disclosure may enable potential immigration offenders to obtain
detailed information on our risk assessment methodology and sensitive information on our
processes. It may also enable potential immigration offenders to circumvent the system.
The use of this exemption also requires us to consider whether in all the circumstances of the
case the public interest in maintaining the exemption stated above outweighs the public
interest in disclosing the information.
I have considered the public interest that there may be in the circumstances of this case in
disclosing the information to you. There is a public interest in disclosing the information to you
as it will increase the transparency of the work of UK Border Agency. There is also a public
interest in ensuring public confidence in the United Kingdom’s immigration and nationality
controls.
I have also considered the public interest there may be in maintaining the exemption to the
duty to communicate. There is a public interest in ensuring the integrity of the United
Kingdom’s immigration controls. Disclosure would allow the public to assess the effectiveness
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of our risk assessment and process strategy and might assist potential immigration offenders
to circumvent the United Kingdom’s immigration and nationality process. This is clearly not in
the public interest.
I have considered whether in all circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining
the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. I have concluded
that the balance of the public interest identified lies in favour of maintaining the exemption
because it is in the overall public interest that UK Border Agency is able to maintain the
integrity of the United Kingdom’s immigration and nationality decision making process.
6
What is the basis of allocating '10 year continuous legal stay ILR applications to
various centres (e.g. Croydon, Liverpool, Sheffield etc) in UK?
Liverpool is now the centre for decisions on all permanent migration cases and the majority of
settlement cases have now been transferred there.
7
Once an applicant has sent his '10 year continuous legal stay' ILR application to the
UKBA and wants to sent some further documents to support his/her application, how
does he/she find out which centre is dealing with his/her application?
All supporting documents should be sent with the application; if we require further
documentation we will write to an applicant, and our letter will show the return address.
8
Out of an average of 100 '10 year continuous legal stay' ILR applications received by
the UKBA, how many of applications falling under this '10 year continuous legal stay'
ILR category (in percentage terms) get a positive outcome?
Of the 3,074 SET (O) applications that have been processed 83% were granted (i.e.
successful).
Notes
(1)
The figures quoted are management information which has been subject to internal quality checks.
(2)
Data relates to main applicants only.
(a) What is the interval of review as to whether the target of 95% applications for ILR 10
years’ continuous stay is being met by caseworkers?
This is constantly measured
(b) What steps have been taken in the last year to speed up the process to clear the
backlog as from 1st January 2012 all applications have to be by post?
Management regularly review processes with a view to improve the service offered to
applicants, however the work in progress at 1st January 2012 was within service standards
and we are not aware of the backlog you refer to.
9
What are the non-routine circumstances under which 10 year Long Residence
applications may be sometimes considered along with Asylum caseworker units?
I am unclear as to what you are referring to with this question, if you could clarify this and
resubmit a new request I will respond, however I would advise that we reserve the right under
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Section 31 (1) (e) not to disclose information which may prejudice the decision making
process.
10 Could UK Border Agency confirm whether when processing applications, applications
under 10 years’ continuous lawful stay in UK' ILR category, if these are decided along
with other types of applications?
Teams decide all types of ILR not just Set (O) long residency, caseworkers are fully trained to
make a decision on a range of settlement applications.
