Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-04-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria are used to decide in which countries to have UK consular and visa offices.
James Brokenshire
Decisions regarding the location of our visa application centres, and the
places in which the applications are decided, are based on a number of
different factors, including geography, security issues, distribution of
demand, political and economic impacts, as well as the financial cost. The
Home Office uses commercial partners to help run its network of visa
application centres, which are the customer-facing end of the service. Under
new contracts which came into effect on 1 April, we will have 340 visa
application points in 142 countries around the world. Applications submitted at visa
application centres are then sent to one of our 32 decision-making hubs for
consideration.
On the Consular side, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) supports
British nationals through the Diplomatic network of 220 Posts around the world, in 170
countries. They also have a network of 230 Honorary Consuls who provide
support in places where the UK is not otherwise represented. Having consular
partners present in countries where the UK is not represented ensures British
nationals have immediate access to assistance. There are only three countries
in the world where there is no in country consular representation by the UK or
any of our main consular partners (EU, Australia, Canada, US or New Zealand).
These are Palau, Sao Tome & Principe and Tuvalu. In these cases, UK Travel
Advice instructs British nationals to seek assistance when needed through the
nearest country with British diplomatic representation: Philippines, Angola and
Fiji respectively. The FCO currently advise against all travel to Syria and
warn British nationals who travel there that the FCO will not be able to
provide them with any assistance. The FCO also advise against all but
essential travel to Iran and advise British nationals to seek assistance from
any EU Member State present in the country.
