Inspection report considers the replacement for Home Office's controversial ‘Streaming Tool’, suspended in 2020 following legal action
The latest inspection report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) was published last week and takes a look at the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of the Home Office's Visas, Status and Information (VSI) services in relation to visit visas.
The 54-page report can be downloaded here.
As the report explains: "VSI decides visa applications made under the 'Immigration Rules Appendix V: Visitor', which sets out the requirements to be met by those who require a visa to come to the UK for a short period: for tourism; for business; to marry or to enter into a civil partnership; to undertake paid engagements, such as performers or sports people; and also for those transiting the UK. Decision makers (DMs) must be satisfied with the 'credibility' of an application and that visit visa applicants are genuinely seeking entry for the purpose of a visit for a limited period. The onus is on applicants to provide evidence to show that they meet the requirements set out in … the Immigration Rules."
VSI has over 1,400 staff and it processed over 1.29 million visit visa applications from January to September 2022.
ICIBI inspectors visited Croydon and Liverpool decision-making centres and the report examines, in particular, the Home Office's 'interim workflow routing solution' introduced in 2020 for processing applications.
The 'interim workflow routing solution' replaced the controversial 'Streaming Tool'. As we reported on EIN in 2020, the Streaming Tool was suspended after legal action by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and the digital rights group Foxglove. JCWI and Foxglove said the tool discriminated on the basis of nationality by design and thus breached the Equality Act 2010.
David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, finds in last week's inspection report that the replacement solution, known as the 'Complexity Application Routing Solution' (CARS), is mostly working well. Indeed, Neal finds VSI is a "refreshingly well-run" area of the Home Office.
Neal said: "The inspection found that, overall, this area of the Home Office is functioning well, despite operational challenges resulting from the lifting of travel restrictions in place during the Coronavirus pandemic. The 'workflow routing solution', a tool that uses 'person-centric attributes' to assess the 'complexity' of visit visa applications, appears to be generally accurate in directing work to the correct grade of decision-maker so that robust, evidence-based decisions can be made."
There were some areas that needed improvement, with David Neal noting: "The inspection found that equality impact assessments and other important policy documents were of good quality, but that reviews of these materials were not routinely being undertaken. A tighter review process would ensure that these are done according to a regular schedule, or when a change to policy or approach is proposed.
"Operationally, the inspection found some practices occurring that are outside of published Home Office policies, particularly in areas such as workflow management and when visit visa applications require further checks. Such practices must be stopped as a matter of priority, and this has been recognised by the Home Office. A more robust assurance regime would pick this up and stop it."
The Home Office's brief response to the ICIBI report can be read online here. All five of the recommendations made by the ICIBI are accepted.