I thank noble Lords who have spoken in this debate and express my admiration for the noble Lord, Lord Oates, on this subject. He is not going to give up on it. He mentioned the QR code, and I totally agree; the QR code has worked brilliantly throughout the pandemic for certain things such as updating your Covid vaccination status. I will take that back to the Home Office and report back on any progress. I know it is not that simple, but we have said that we are considering it and I will report back to the House on its progress.
The noble Lord will not be surprised to hear any of my other arguments, though. When people are granted immigration status, they get a formal written notification of their grant in the form of a letter sent by post or email, which sets out their immigration status in the UK. They can retain it for their own personal records and use it, if they want, when contacting the Home Office about their status. Those issued with a biometric residence permit or an e-visa can use the online services to share that status online with other individuals or organisations, such as employers and landlords. Holders of an e-visa can also print off a copy of their immigration status, which is shown on their online profile, and store it with their personal records.
I know the hour is late, but I will touch on a couple of the other advantages of the e-visa. It puts individuals in control of their own data, gives them direct access to information held by the Home Office about their status and, importantly, adheres to the principles of data minimisation, ensuring that only the information required by a checker, rather than all the information held on a physical card, is made available to the checker. Secondly, information on a physical document might be out of date if a person’s status has changed since it was issued, and a person’s digital status is always up to date.
The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, is going to cringe now, because we are developing a border and immigration service that is “digital by default”, which means that we will increasingly replace physical and paper-based products and services with accessible, easy-to-use online products. My parents were not at all digital by default, but they have become digital by default over time. I know it is difficult when you do not have a physical document in front of you, but it is more and more the way the world is going.
We started the rollout of e-visas in 2018, starting with EU citizens granted status under the beta phases of the EU settlement scheme and expanding to all EEA and Swiss EUSS applicants when the scheme first opened back in March last year, followed by the Hong Kong BNO route, the graduate route and, most recently, the student and skilled worker extension routes. We plan to continue to roll out e-visas incrementally. The Home Office’s ambition is to have biometric residence permits replaced by e-visas by the end of 2024, so that eventually all foreign nationals granted status will have e-visas that can be securely and easily accessed and shared online.
In response to what the noble Lord, Lord Oates, said, so far the online services have been positive. Individuals who struggle can contact the UKVI resolution centre, including by phone.
I will give the House an update on the QR code, but I support the whole principle of being able to use a QR code. With that, I hope the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment.