Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the (a) waiting times for an Application registration card (ARC) for unaccompanied minors to be issued and (b) average number of days taken to process ARC cards for unaccompanied minors in each of the last 12 months.

An Application Registration Card (ARC) is produced as a routine part of the registration process for asylum applicants, and is not an immigration product in its own right which people apply for.

The system will produce and deliver an ARC within three days of the asylum screening taking place. ARC figures broken down as requested are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.