Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2023 to Question 191605 on Asylum: Staff, what steps her Department has taken to (a) streamline, (b) digitalise and (c) simplify the asylum processing system.

We are accelerating decision-making and rapidly speeding up asylum processing times. We are driving productivity improvements by simplifying and modernising our system. This includes shorter, more focussed interviews; removing unnecessary interviews; making guidance simpler and more accessible; dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded; targeted training; and recruiting extra decision makers.

Another way in which we will achieve that is via the Streamlined Asylum Process which is centred around accelerating the processing of manifestly well-founded asylum claims.

We have developed existing and new technology to help build on recent improvements such as digital interviewing and move away from a paper-based system. We are also developing digital tools to support case working, including appointment booking, case prioritisation, allocation tools and a document exchange portal.