To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of the benefits and entitlements provided to successful immigration applicants; and how this is factored into setting fees for immigration and nationality services.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of the financial benefits that are available from a successful UK citizenship application.

HL1646

Immigration and nationality fees are kept under review to ensure they are within the parameters agreed with HM Treasury and Parliament, as set out in Section 68 (9) of the Immigration Act 2014, which details the factors the Home Secretary may take into account when setting fees. These include the costs of processing an application, the benefits likely to accrue to any person in connection with the application, and the costs of exercising wider immigration and nationality functions.

HL1650

The 2018 Immigration and Nationality Fees Regulations setting the current fee to register as a British Citizen, were accompanied by an impact assessment which can be accessed via the following link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/59/pdfs/ukia_20180059_en.pdf.

An amendment to these Regulations was laid on 26 May 2022 which provides a power to waive fees for child registration applications on the basis of affordability and a fee exception for children who are looked after by a Local Authority. These regulations were accompanied by an impact assessment which can be accessed via the following link: The Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (legislation.gov.uk)

These analyses considered benefits such as revenue for the Exchequer and the benefits to applicants from attaining citizenship, the latter of which cannot be monetised. Those were balanced against implementation and processing costs to the Home Office, familiarisation costs for law and immigration advice firms, time costs for applicants, and public service provision costs.

Impact Assessment (a) (pdf, 330.6KB)

Child Citizenship (b) (pdf, 511.0KB)