Home Office fails to attend UK visa hearings
July 30 2010 by Liam Clifford
Damning verdict on the Home Office
Home Office officials have admitted that they have failed to attend almost a third of UK immigration hearings.
The revelation came in the form of figures from the Home
Office, revealed after Parliamentary Questions from Conservative MP Andrew
Percy.
The figures show that some 6,330 UK immigration hearings have
taken place over the past year without official government representation
through Home Office officials. This is almost one in three of the 14,335
hearings that have taken place in total.
Critics of the Home Office claim
that the failure to attend the hearings shows a "lack of care". Others claim
that it is the non-attendance which has led to an increase in the number of UK
visas granted as a result of these hearings.
Statistics for hearings
that took place last year show that half of them resulted in people being
allowed to remain living in the UK. This was up from a third of cases two years
ago.
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee stated,
"It is a waste of the court's time, a waste of taxpayer's money and causes
distress to the individuals who are left waiting in these cases."
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