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Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I thank the noble Baronesses for the points that they made. I might help to answer some for both of them, but certainly for the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham. I shall sketch out some of the total sums involved. If I do not do justice to the subject, I am more than happy to expand it in writing. The question of administrative costs was raised. The administrative cost base for 2009-10 will be £566 million, which in itself is a £2 million reduction on this year. The agreement with the Treasury is to raise £100 million above the cost base to contribute to the full end-to-end cost of the immigration system. I do not apologise for the fact that people coming here are asked to pay a little more because the benefits of citizenship—of being here, of education here—are things that they value, or they would not be here. I take seriously the point at which you test to destruction, but I hope to demonstrate that we are not doing that. In addition to the £100 million that we seek to raise to the cost base, we also have an agreement to raise £35 million through fees to deliver the fund to manage the transitional impact. I will come back to who the beneficiary of that will be in a while. In 2009-10, the estimate is to raise some £700 million through the fees for applications and services, which will of course be a 30 per cent contribution to the total cost, so the bulk of the cost is still borne by the UK taxpayer. Clearly, as has been said, some are beneficiaries of underpricing the real price, and some are paying the contribution beyond the real price. Let us look at student fees and tier 4, for example. The increase in student fees is from £99 to £145. The fee for the tier 4 visa remains significantly below the cost of processing the application, which is over £250. That is how we will continue to attract foreign students. Yes, the total costs of a foreign student coming to the UK, including their fees and upkeep, will be considerable, but the increase from £99 to £145—little over half the actual cost of producing the visa—will not be a great disincentive. As has been noticed, we are extending the period of leave that can be granted, so that it is up to the end of the course. The one fee of £145 will cover the whole of the student’s period in the UK, even when the degree course goes longer than the period. In addition, we offer students who wish to undertake short-term courses of not more than six months an ability to enter the UK as student visitors. The fee for that, £65, will go up to £67, which effectively takes into account the increases of last year. The figures for April to December were issued today and the total number of students who benefited last year from lower application fees was 43,038. I hope that that gives a flavour. The fee is a small part of the costs incurred by students. We have looked at the price of a tier 4 visa, which represents, we believe, about only 1 per cent of the total cost of coming to the UK. The costs of student visas compare favourably with our key competitor countries. In Australia, the student fee is £219 and, in the United States, it is £300. Price demand research suggests that £200 is the point at which the tier 4 visa might influence a decision on whether to come to the United Kingdom. Interestingly, the Home Office and independent analysis on the impact of historic visa fees increases has failed to find any direct link between visa pricing changes and migration behaviour. In answer to the question about licences and colleges, most colleges have already registered. The fee for small sponsors is £300 for a four-year licence. Long-term visas provide benefit because the cost of a long-term visit visa—five to 10 years, which is a unique product in the global market—still offers very good value for money. The five-year visa at £400 is less than the cost of six separate short-term visit visas. A 10-year visit visa at £500 is less than the cost of eight short-term visit visas. These products offer a substantial additional benefit, and people do not have to resubmit applications and biometric data. Sceptical is possibly too strong a word, but the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, was not entirely convinced about the impact assessment, which relates to the costs of business. The fees here are paid by migrants and not by businesses. In that sense, we do not believe that there is anything in the impact assessment that is not considered to be robust. I do not feel that I have done justice to all the questions, but I undertake to read Hansard and to write to the noble Baronesses on any points that I have not covered. In terms of some of the detailed information, I could perhaps set it out in a more comprehensive form than perhaps even the questions asked. Pulling it together in data form can be reassuring to those who are concerned about these increases having an adverse impact on our migrant student population on entry or on those who come here to work. I thank noble Lords for the debate. I believe that the proposals in these regulations are in line with our objective to recover the costs of the Immigration Service from users of the system, rather than rely wholly on the UK taxpayer. As such, that policy is widely supported in the community. I commend this instrument to the House.