To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will place in the Library a copy of the guidance issued to staff for the purposes of determining tourist visa applications from applicants from mainland China; and if she will make a statement. (247908)

[holding answer 27 January 2009]: All tourist visa applications are considered against paragraph 41 of the Immigration Rules for General Visitors. In addition to paragraph 41 of the Immigration Rules, Chinese tourist visitors seeking leave to enter under the approved destinations status (ADS) agreement with China will have their applications considered against paragraph 56G-56J of the immigration rules.

Chinese tourist visitors who apply under paragraph 56G-56J of the immigration rules are required to use an accredited ADS travel agent, of which there are over 60 throughout China.

All visa officers are subject to intensive training in the United Kingdom prior to overseas deployment to ensure they are able to assess all types of visa applications to enter the United Kingdom. The guidance used throughout this training period and subsequent reference material used by visa officers is substantial. All immigration rules, including those for paragraph 41 and 56G-56J, are publicly available and can be located on the internet. The section on Visit and Transit in Entry Clearance Guidance gives additional guidance to entry clearance officers for dealing with visit visa applications. This guidance can also be found on the internet.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applicants for visas from mainland China were refused visas in each of the last three years, broken down by category of refusal. (248117)

[holding answer 27 January 2009]: The following table provides issue and refusal statistics per year for 2006, 2007 and 2008 broken down into categories for total applications received in mainland China at our embassy in Beijing and the Consulate-Generals in Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou.