My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Margaret Beckett) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have today placed in the Library a copy of the report by Mrs Linda Costelloe Baker, the Independent Monitor for Entry Clearance Refusals with Limited Rights of Appeal, covering the period 1 January to 30 September 2006. A copy is also available on the UKvisas website (at www.ukvisas.co.uk) together with UKvisas’ response to the monitor’s recommendations.

I welcome Mrs Costelloe Baker’s constructive and positive report, which is based on her detailed review of 1,117 cases out of the 2.1 million handled by UKvisas during the period 1 January to 30 September 2006. Mrs Costelloe Baker notes a significant improvement in the quality of UKvisas’ work as it began to focus more firmly on balance and customer service.

Mrs Costelloe Baker is satisfied that 90 per cent of refusal decisions in her sample were reasonable. This is a rise of 3.7 per cent over the 2005 sample. The report contains a number of practical recommendations to UKvisas in regard to the quality of its decision-making, customer service and complaint handling. UKvisas intends to make use of these recommendations to make further improvements to its business performance and customer service delivery.

I wish to express my thanks to Mrs Costelloe Baker for her hard work in completing this, her second report as Independent Monitor for Entry Clearance Refusals with Limited Rights of Appeal. Her next report will cover the period from October 2006 to March 2007 and will be published in autumn 2007.