NRPF Connect is operated by the Home Office NRPF team based within Immigration Enforcement. The team’s primary role is to respond to local authority immigration status requests and queries raised on NRPF Connect. It also liaises with Home Office casework teams on behalf of councils and conducts targeted work, such as reviewing long-standing cases.

In June 2025, we undertook a short survey of NRPF Connect users, receiving 95 responses. 83% of responders were either very satisfied or satisfied with the service they receive from the Home Office NRPF team and 74% of responders confirmed that having a central point of contact with the Home Office (the NRPF team) was essential to their work.

5.1 Volume of status checks and queries

The Home Office NRPF team provide local authorities with a high volume and well-used service, receiving nearly 18,000 local authority queries and requests for immigration status checks throughout the year. For the number of information requests received by the Home Office each month, see figure 21.

Local authority users can also perform an instant immigration status look-up by using the Recourse to Public Funds (RTPF) checker, which is embedded within NRPF Connect. The RTPF checker will show the current or last grant of leave that a person has had within the previous two years. The council can go onto create a case and request the Home Office NRPF team to undertake a manual status check, where this is required.

Figure 21: Number of immigration status checks and queries requested by local authority users throughout 2024–25

5.2 Response times

The Home Office regularly reviews resourcing levels and operational processes to ensure the delivery of an effective service aligned with service level agreements. In addition, continuous efforts are made to identify opportunities to streamline and enhance existing processes.

A service level agreement sets out the agreed response times with the Home Office aiming to respond to status checks within 5 working days and queries within 10 working days.

Since November 2024, the Home Office responded to immigration status checks and queries within an average time of 2 working days. An average response time of 2 days was maintained when requests for immigration status checks and queries significantly increased in January.

However, prior to November, the average response times for status checks and queries were above the timeframes set out in the service level agreement. This can be attributed to staffing changes, as the team was understaffed for the first part of the year. In November 2024, a new manager joined, staffing numbers returned to full capacity, and newly appointed team members had completed their training.

When the Home Office fails to meet agreed response times, this undermines a council’s ability to manage statutory responses efficiently.

For the average times that the Home Office responded to information requests each month, see figure 22.

Figure 22: Average number of days the Home Office took each month to respond to status checks and queries during 2024–25

5.3 1000-day cases review

Since February 2025, the Home Office NRPF team has been undertaking a full assessment of all households recorded as receiving financial support for at least 1,000-days.

As part of this work, strategic focus has been placed on case types where the need for urgent decision-making is most evident. Casework teams have been allocating cases to individual caseworkers for progression, while collaboration with councils is helping to ensure that active cases are accurately maintained on NRPF Connect and that financial support records are up to date. In parallel, internal referrals and ongoing reviews of 1,000-day cases are expected to lead to more positive outcomes in the coming months.