Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Proportion of complex visa cases increased during peak application periods due to scrutiny.
Conclusion
We asked the Home Office why the proportion of ‘complex’ cases increased during periods when it received large numbers of visa applications.98 Between the end of 2021 and 2024, it has marked 18% of applications (330,000 cases) as ‘complex’, but this increased to 31% between July and September 2023, which is the period when applications peaked.99 The Home Office told us this was due to it applying more scrutiny 92 Q 72 93 C&AG’s Report, footnote 15 94 Q 73 95 Qq 74, 76; C&AG’s Report, para 3.2 96 Qq 74, 78 97 C&AG’s Report, para 3.3 98 Q 75 99 C&AG’s Report, para 3.3, fig. 7 23 to applications, which required more information from applicants. It said it was not “gaming” its published performance statistics by marking cases as ‘complex’ when they were not.100
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 15 October 2025. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗