Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress his Department has made on processing asylum applications for people who arrived in the UK between 7 March and 19 July 2023.

In 2023 we met the Prime Minister's pledge to clear the legacy backlog of asylum cases made before 28 June 2022. The Home Office is now prioritising claims (lodged on or after 28 June 2022).

These are being considered under provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. It is only right that we consider the oldest claims first.

Our priority is to consider claims as efficiently as possible, in order to process claims efficiently, and reduce the number of people on asylum support, in turn reducing the burden on taxpayers.