Outsourcing has created misery for visa applicants

Rarely is the failure to find a human voice on the other end of the telephone line so painful as in the case of Brendon Currie. The Independent reported last week on Mr Currie, who lives in Norway, and his struggle with the labyrinthine British visa system as he attempted to visit his dying grandfather, a decorated Second World War veteran. Only when this newspaper covered the story did the Home Office move into action. Mr Currie first dealt, as everyone seeking a visa must, with Teleperformance – a company paid £300m last year by the Government to take over the practicalities until 2019.

Despite paying £103 for “priority” service, Mr Currie was shunted for days between various bureaucratic departments, from one web form to another, and finally on to a premium phone line costing £1.72 a minute (which proved no use). In the end Mr Currie was denied the chance to be by his grandfather’s side before 92-year-old Anthony Eldridge died on Monday afternoon. This is a particularly emotive case. But the robotic and unresponsive service of Teleperformance has drawn stinging criticism from many more besides. That no number is provided for emergency contact bespeaks a disregard for visa applicants worldwide, who typically have no choice but to wait. There is a strong case for a consistently manned phone service to expedite the most pressing pleas – those in which matters of life and death are concerned, not merely the interruption of holiday plans.

Ultimate responsibility for visa applications lies with the Government, and whoever assumes power following May’s election should examine the Teleperformance contract, and seek to correct the impression of blithe inefficiency that has come to emanate from the Home Office’s UK Visas and Immigration Department. Too often outsourcing has resulted in an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to government affairs. Mr Currie’s trial must have no sequel.