Home Office written question – answered at on 3 December 2024.
John Hayes
Conservative, South Holland and The Deepings
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to collect data on the number of applications to stay in the UK that are made on the basis of a sham (a) marriage and (b) civil partnership.
Angela Eagle
The Minister of State, Home Department
The Government takes abuse of the spouse and partner immigration routes very seriously. Family migration must be based on a genuine and subsisting marriage or relationship. The Home Office focuses its efforts on disrupting facilitators as well as prosecuting individuals involved in sham marriages and civil partnerships.
The Home Office will also investigate if, at any point, there are reasonable suspicions of a sham relationship, for example following applications for permission to enter or stay, or where there is supporting intelligence or evidence gathered during operations.
The Home Office continues to enhance its reporting capabilities of recorded sham marriage data and is recording the number of sham marriage and civil partnership applications that it detects. However, it is not possible to state how many applications to stay are made on the basis of a sham marriage or civil partnership.
Yes3 people think so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
