Last Wednesday a debate took place called Preventing Crime and Delivering Justice. That came the day after the Opening of Parliament and the Minister who opened the discussion was Prit Patel. Following her statement Yvette Cooper responded and during her comments Lloyd Russell-Moyle who is the MP for Brighton Kemptown spoke up. As it happens if one goes to the Government website today the image shown here is the current statement which relate to the comments that took place back on the 11th May. So the words from Lloyd are the following:

Does my right hon. Friend agree with me about the really troubling reports—some of these are cases I have dealt with, but some of these I heard of through the media—of the Home Office issuing visas for only some members of Ukrainian families? The families quite rightly do not want to leave someone behind, so do not come here. That is classed as Ukrainians not taking up a visa, rather than Home Office failure. At the same time, the Home Office lines are bunged up. We cannot get through, and when we do, we are told, “I don’t even have a computer in front of me. I’m just on a phone line, and I don’t know what to say.” This is failure at the Home Office, and the Home Secretary has presided over it.

The response from Yvette Cooper began with

My hon. Friend is right. I have also heard of cases where one family member does not get their visa, and of course the whole family has to wait. They are not going to be separated at a time of crisis. That Home Office Ministers think it is somehow a triumph to take four weeks to issue basic visas to people fleeing war in Europe is totally shameful.

So the question is has the Government changed things in the last week and when will they publish the latest numbers?