Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum cases were awaiting an initial decision in January (a) 2025 and (b) 2026.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the 'Immigration System Statistics' and the ‘Migration Transparency Data’ releases.

Data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’ and data on the percentage of applications processed within 6 months is published in table ASY_01 of the ‘Immigration and Protection data’. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2025. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.

Data on the average processing times of claims is not currently published. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.