Dear Mr Timms,

Thank you for your letter of 21 July about the publication of statistics on people being granted Leave to Remain with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF).

It is helpful that the Home Office is now publishing quarterly data on numbers applying for a change to the NRPF condition and whether or not their applications were successful.

On your further question, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has discussed with the Home Office the lack of published information on the number of rejected applications for a change to the NRPF condition and the reasons for rejection, as you requested from the Secretary of State in recent Parliamentary Questions ^{[1], [2]}.

We understand from these conversations that because of the way re-applications are documented, these data cannot be made available without manual examination of all application case files, for which the department does not have the resource.

However, work is currently underway on new systems to improve the linking of cases across the department, which should make the data more readily available in the future. Such data are clearly of public interest, and our director general for regulation Ed Humpherson has written urging the Home Office to publish its plans and timetables for producing statistics on the numbers applying and having to reapply for a change in the NRPF condition, and to consider what is feasible in relation to publishing reasons for NRPF refusals.

Yours sincerely,

Sir David Norgrove

[1] Question for Home Office (24883), 30 June 2021

[2] Question for Home Office (25711), 1 July 2021

 

Related Links:

Stephen Timms MP to Sir David Norgrove: Leave to Remain with No Recourse to Public Funds statistics