EU settlement visa applications for the primary carer of a British citizen (Zambrano Carers)

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Home Office should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Home Office,

RE: EU settlement visa applications submitted by or on behalf of a primary carer of a British citizen during the period from 1 January 2019 until 21 June 2019.

How many applications were decided within each of:

- 2 working days
- 3 working days
- 5 working days
- 10 working days
- 15 working days
- 30 working days
- 60 working days
- 90 working days

Please also state how many of these applications remain pending after the following:

-30 working days
-60 working days
-90 working days

Per, the Guidance regarding the EU Settlement Scheme: current estimated processing times for applications(Updated 17 May 2019) "Applications usually take between 1 and 4 calendar days."

See https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

Yours faithfully,

R.Brown

FOI Requests, Home Office

Dear R Brown,

 

 

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request.

 

This has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 54248). We will aim to
send you a full response by 22/07/2019 which is twenty working days from
the date we received your request.

 

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

 

Thank you,

 

N McKenzie

Home Office

 

 

 

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FOI Responses, Home Office

3 Attachments

[1]Logo for letterhead.png  

   

                     

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Please find attached a letter in response to your FOI request of 21 June.

 

Yours faithfully

 

J Slater

CCT FOI

Customer Performance and Improvement

 

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References

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Dear Home Office,

You state, "The settlement scheme for primary carers did not open until 9 May 2019." You publicly announced the scheme would open from 1 May 2019.

You state, "We do hold the information you have requested for the period 9 May up to 21 June 2019, but as it will not be published into the public domain until later this year, we are unable to provide it yet."

YOU HAVE published information about your EU settlement scheme performance repeatedly this year.

You state, "After careful consideration we have decided that the information is exempt from disclosure under section 36(2)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act. This provides that information can be withheld where disclosure would prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs and the public interest falls in favour of applying the exemption."

YOU PROVIDED the same level of detail for other groups. There is no rational justification for discriminating against derivative residence card holders.

In February 2019, you write, EU Settlement Scheme: Written statement - HLWS1354 - "By the end of February 2019, more than 105,000 of these applications had been concluded, with 71 per cent granted settled status, the rest granted pre-settled status and none refused. 75 per cent of these applicants received their decision within three days and 80 per cent of those who provided feedback found the online application process easy, or fairly easy, to complete. A report on the public beta test phase will be published after its conclusion on 30 March 2019."

SEE https://www.parliament.uk/business/publi...

In April 2019, you write, "This is the first statistical release of high-level information on the EU Settlement Scheme up to 30 April 2019...The information presented in this report refers to data during the ‘first month’ since the full launch of the EU Settlement Scheme (from 30 March 2019 to 30 April 2019), and ‘total’ numbers since testing of the scheme began (from 28 August 2018 to 30 April 2019). You then list Number of applications received, Number of applications concluded, Number of applications received across constituent parts of the United Kingdom, Number of applications received by nationality."

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

You agree to "balance the public interest in disclosure against the public interest in favour of withholding the information, or the considerations for and against the requirement to say whether the information requested is held or not."

YOU HAVE NOT STATED why releasing specifics by region, nationality, etc is in the public interest, yet releasing by application type is not in the public interest.

You acknowledge you must "consider the greater good or benefit to the community as a whole if the information is released or not. The ‘right to know’ must be balanced against the need to enable effective government and to serve the best interests of the public."

As you have the data readily available, you have not explained why releasing it will "hurt" the public.

Furthermore, you state, "The Department publishes migration statistics quarterly and intends to publish migration statistics for the second quarter of 2019 later this year. "

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

You state, "The exact breakdown of the information requested will not be published...Premature release of the subset of data requested could form part of a series of requests which together could build up a picture of the overall data due to be published..

Then, you state, "Information released to one person under the FOI Act is, in effect, released to the public at large. This would provide an opportunity for others to submit additional requests ahead of the planned publication date in order to obtain the information prematurely. "

THESE TWO STATEMENTS contradict each other. IF you never intended to publish the information, additional requests ahead of the planned publication date would not matter. With regard to premature releases, you have released data in February 2019, April 2019, May 2019, etc. Your release schedule is so frequent, your response time line (20 days) so long, and your budget so limited (£600) that it is highly unlikely for a series of requests to "build up a picture of the overall data to be published."

Your conclusion, "We conclude that the overall balance of the public interest lies in favour of withholding the information to ensure that the Home Office is able to publish migration statistics in a managed and coherent way," does not adhere to your requirements under the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours faithfully,

R.Brown

FOI Requests, Home Office

R.Brown,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request.

This Internal Review has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 54248). We will aim to send you a full response by 06/08/2019 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

P. Zebedee
FOI Requests
Home Office

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Dear FOI Requests,

On 8 July 2019, you write, "This Internal Review has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 54248). We will aim to send you a full response by 06/08/2019 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request."

I have not received a response. Please explain why.

Yours sincerely,

R.Brown

Dear FOI Requests,

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours sincerely,

R.Brown

FOI Requests, Home Office

Thank you for contacting the Home Office FOI Requests Mailbox.  

We will endeavour to respond within 2 working days.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.  

 

Thank you,  

FOI Requests Home Office

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