Corporate Services
020 7035 4848
2 Marsham Street
(switchboard)
London SW1P 4DF
www.homeoffice.gov.uk
BritCits
request-234642-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
11th August 2016
Freedom of Information request (our ref: 33251): internal review
Dear BritCits,
Thank you for your e-mail of 23rd October 2015, in which you ask for an internal review of
the Home Office’s handling of your request, titled “Stats on refusals/grants of entry
clearance visas”. I apologise for the delay in you receiving the outcome.
In part (a) of your request, you asked for the number of entry clearance applications
received from 1st July 2012 to
“as recently as your stats allow”. In part (b) of your request,
you asked for the number of the applications which were (i) refused, (ii) granted; and (iii)
still pending. In part (c) of your request, you asked for the number of applications that
were reviewed by another ECO or an ECM and the number of applications that were
refused and granted following this review. Your original request can be found in Annex A.
In the response, the Home Office provided you with the information you requested,
covering 1st July 2012 to June 2014. The full response can be found in Annex B.
After receiving the response, you asked for further information relating to the information
provided in response to part (c) of your request. You asked how many of the 368,005
ECO reviews were granted and refused, prior to the ECM review. You also asked how the
368,005 cases for review were selected. Your follow-up questions can be found in Annex
C.
You asked for an internal review as you did not receive a response to your follow-up
request. Your full request for an internal review can be found in Annex D.
I have now completed the review. I have examined all the relevant papers and have
consulted the policy unit which provided the original response. I have considered whether
the correct procedures were followed. I confirm that I was not involved in the initial
handling of your request.
The Home Office should have assigned your follow-up request a new reference number
and issued a response within 20 working days. Unfortunately this was not done due to an
administrative error. I apologise on behalf of the Home Office for this oversight.
Your follow-up request will be responded to as part of this review.
You asked:
“How many of the numbers in [part] (b)(I) and (ii) were reviewed either by another ECO or
an ECM and the numbers refused and granted, post this review”. To retrieve this information, the original information you requested also had to be
gathered. When doing so, I established that the data differed from the information you
were provided with in the original response. This is likely because the search that was
originally conducted did not cover the full timeframe (1st July 2012 to June 2014). The
accurate data - and the information requested above - can be found in Annex E.
In your follow-up request, you also asked:
“Please provide any information on how the 368,005 cases for review were selected.
Were they all for example at the request of the applicant or their representative for a
reconsideration?”.
As you will see from the information in Annex E, 375,244 applications were reviewed by
the ECM in the timeframe specified. There is no field on the database to search for the
reason for the review, so each case would need to be manually assessed to retrieve this
information. This search would far exceed the 24 hour cost limit, defined in section 12(1)
(cost) of the Act, due to the number of cases that would need to be assessed.
You could refine this part of your request by significantly reducing the timeframe.
Yours sincerely
L. Picton
Information Rights Team
Switchboard 020 7035 4848
E-mail
xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
Annex A – Original request (ref 33251)
Dear Home Office
Please provide information on
a) the number of entry clearance applications, covering the period 1 July 2012 to as
recently as your stats allow.
b) The initial decision in the applications referred to in a) being a i) refusal ii) grant iii) still
pending
c) how many of the numbers in b) i) and a ii) were reviewed either by another ECO or an
ECM, and the numbers refused and granted, post this review.
I am trying to assess the impact of a review by an ECM or ECO to see in how many cases
the original decision is upheld.
Regards
BritCits
Annex B – Original response (ref 33251)
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your letter of 17 October requesting information on entry clearance data,
specifically:
1- Please provide information on the number of applications received covering 1 July 2012
to as recently as stats allow.
2- How many were (a) granted (b) refused (c) still pending?
3- How many of those granted or refused were reviewed by another ECO or ECM and post
review how many were refused and granted?
Your request is being handled as a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that the Home Office holds the information you have
requested.
Please find the data below relating to your request and note that the figures quoted are not
provided under National Statistics protocols but have been derived from local management
information. They are therefore provisional and subject to changes.
1- 5,462,780 applications were received between 1 July 2012 and June 2014.
2- A) 4,578,935 applications were issued, (b) 607,880 were refused & (c) 38,440 are
currently pending.
3- 368, 005 applications were reviewed by the ECM, 292,445 applications were issued
following the review and 75,560 refusals were maintained post review.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review
of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to the address
below, quoting reference [33251]. If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if
you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response. The contact address for
requesting an internal review is below:
Information Access Team
Home Office
Ground Floor,
Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
E-mail
: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx. 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 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
A. Ojewale (Mrs)
FOI Practitioner – Midlands, East of England & International Responder Hub
UK Visas & Immigration
Annex C – Follow-up request
Dear VSD - FOI Enquiries
Thank you for the information. On point 3, you indicate that 368,005 applications were
reviewed by an ECM. Could you please clarify
1) I note your use of the word 'maintained' suggests all the 368,005 reviewed were
refusals. However could you please confirm this or otherwise indicate how many of the
368,005 reviews were a grant by an ECO, and how many were a refusal by an ECO, prior
to the ECM review.
2) Please provide any information on how the 368,005 cases for review were selected.
Were they all for example at the request of the applicant or their representative for a
reconsideration?
Yours sincerely
BritCits
Annex D – Request for an internal review
Dear Home Office,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's handling of my FOI request
'Stats on refusals/grants of entry clearance visas'.
severe time delay!
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this
address:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...
Yours faithfully,
BritCits
Annex E – Information for disclosure
Information originally requested
This data covers 1st July 2012 to June 2014:
(a)
The number of entry clearance applications, covering the period 1st July 2012
to as recently as your stats allow
5,468,257
(b)
The initial decision in the applications referred to in (a), being:
(i)
A refusal
602,190
(ii)
Granted
4,579,391
(iii)
Still pending
33,788
(c)
How many of the numbers in (b) (i) and (ii) were reviewed either by another
ECO or an ECM and the numbers refused and granted, post this review.
375,244 applications were reviewed by the ECM. Following ECM review, 299,305
applications were granted and 75,939 were refused.
Information asked for in the follow-up request
How many of the 368,005 reviews were a grant by an ECO and how many were
refused by an ECO, prior to the ECM review.
280,318 applications were granted prior to the ECM review and 94,926 were refused.
Annex F
This completes the internal review process by the Home Office. If you remain dissatisfied
with the response to your FoI request, you have the right of complaint to the Information
Commissioner at the following address:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF