Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average duration of the asylum procedure at first instance is in the UK.

The Home Office is unable to report what the average duration of the asylum procedure at the first instance is in the UK as this information is not recorded and held in a reportable format.

However, the Home Office does publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration. This data can be found at This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2020/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement