Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for naturalisation have been outstanding for longer than six months.

The latest published data on naturalisation applications can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-august-2019

Naturalisation is not an automatic process and the Home Office has to conduct a number of checks before it can reach a decision on whether to grant citizenship.

The extent and length of time taken to complete the checks on the more complex cases varies according to the particular circumstance of each case.

The progress of these checks is closely monitored and decisions are made when the checks are completed.