Dear Wendy,

Thank you for your enquiry of 22 September, and subsequent clarification, in which you requested statistical information on the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) and Tier 1 General of the Points-Based System (PBS). This has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I apologise for the delay in responding to your request.

There were 1,950 In-Country HSMP and Tier 1 applications received from US nationals during the period 1 January 2007 (Tier 1 from 28 February 2008) to 6 October 2008. During the same period 1,455 applications were approved.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with any information on the reasons for applications being refused. In order to obtain this information we would have to trawl through individual case files. Whilst we do hold this information, the estimated cost of locating and retrieving this information would exceed the £600 limit and we are therefore unable to comply with it.

The UK Border Agency is not obliged to comply with any information request where the prescribed costs of supplying you with the information exceed £600. The £600 limit applies to all Central Government departments and is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3.5 days work per request. Prescribed costs include those which cover the cost of locating and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you.

The figures quoted above are not provided under National Statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information. The figures are therefore provisional and subject to change. All figures are rounded to the nearest 5.

I hope this is of help to you. If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request.  Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the UK Border Agency sending a substantive reply to your original request and should be addressed to:

Information Access Policy Team

(Freedom of Information Team)

11th floor (short corridor)

Lunar House

40 Wellesley Road

Croydon

CR9 2BY

During the independent review the Department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Sandra Birkinshaw

Freedom of Information Team

North East, Yorkshire and the Humber Region

UK Border Agency