Asylum: Questionnaires

(asked on 28th February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the use of questionnaires in place of face to face interviews to assess asylum applications on applicants.


Answered by
Robert Jenrick Portrait
Robert Jenrick
This question was answered on 6th March 2023

On 13 December 2022, the Prime Minister pledged to clear the backlog of the 92,601 initial asylum ‘legacy’ claims. These relate to historical asylum claims made before 28 June 2022.

Policy guidance on this was published on 23 February 2023 (Streamlined asylum processing - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Asylum claim questionnaires were sent to legacy claimants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen. These countries have been included in the streamlined asylum process on the basis of their high-grant rate of 95% or higher and over 100 grants in the year-ending September 2022 of protection status (refugee status or humanitarian protection). All asylum seekers will have already undergone a screening interview on arrival, as well as face-to-face security checks in which they will provide biometric information and their identity. Where there is insufficient information or any doubt about the information provided in the questionnaire or a caseworker has further questions including about someone’s nationality, a caseworker should arrange a follow-up asylum interview.

The policy is compliant with our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty and an Equality Impact Assessment was drafted as part of the policy development process. We are committed to continue working with stakeholders going forward to improve the asylum system for all.

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