Immigration: Entry Clearance Refusals

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mrs Margaret Beckett) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. I have placed in the Library of the House copies of the 2005 report by Linda Costelloe Baker, the independent monitor for entry clearance refusals without the right of appeal. A copy is also available on the UKvisas website (at www.ukvisas.co.uk) together with its response to the monitor's recommendations. Mrs Costelloe Baker's report is based on a sample of entry clearance refusals without full rights of appeal, made in 2005. It focuses on decision quality with recommendations on how UKvisas can further improve in this area. I welcome the recommendations, which UKvisas will implement. I wish to express my thanks to Mrs Costelloe Baker for her hard work in completing this, her first report as independent monitor for entry clearance refusals without the right of appeal. Her next report will cover the period January to September 2006 and will be published in spring 2007.