Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Angela Eagle and Euan Stainbank(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dame Angela Eagle
It is our intention to close all asylum hotels as soon as possible, once we deal with the backlog that we inherited from the Conservative party.
Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)
Asylum accommodation hotels were once emergency measures but have now lasted several years because of the mess the Tories made of our asylum system. Scrapping the Rwanda scheme and recommencing the processing of claims has led to a substantially lower backlog than we would have had if we had continued with the Tory policies, but there is still much more to do. Will the Minister update the House on progress towards ending asylum hotel accommodation and cutting waiting times for asylum application decisions?
Dame Angela Eagle
We inherited a system where very few decisions were being made. We have ramped up decision making to over 11,000 decisions a month and we are dealing with the backlog, but backlogs cannot be abolished overnight, and there are also appeals backlogs. We inherited a huge mess, but we are methodically getting through it.