To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of (a) short-term and (b) long-term visa applications that were wrongly approved in each year since 1997. (241068)

Visa services deploy a range of indicators and checks concerning the quality of decisions to issue a visa. These include sampling of decisions by Entry Clearance Managers, spot checks on whether applicants have left the UK, refusals of visa holders at ports of entry and monitoring of compliance when in the UK. In addition, the use of biometrics allows us to identify those who have entered the UK on a visa but subsequently destroyed their ID papers. This information is fed into risk profiles to inform future visa decisions. UKBA is also employing structured decision-making techniques to improve consistency in decision-making. The Independent Monitor for Entry Clearance scrutinises visa refusals not acceptances.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for visas for entry into the UK were (a) accepted and (b) refused in each year since 2003. (268375)

The total number of (a) visa applications received (b) visas issued and (c) visas refused in each year from 2004-08 is shown in the following table. Reliable data for prior years are not held.