Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has a target for the time to make decisions on non-straight forward asylum applications.

We are committed to ensuring that asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay, to ensure that those who need protection are granted as soon as possible and can start to integrate and rebuild their lives, including those granted at appeal. All asylum claims lodged in the UK are carefully considered on a case by case basis, based on their individual merits, against a background of relevant case law and up to date country information.

Until recently, our aim was to decide 98% of straight forward asylum claims within six months of the date of claim. However, many asylum claims are not straight-forward, which meant it was not always possible to make an initial decision within six months of the date of claim. Many of these cases had a barrier that needed to be overcome to make the asylum decision and many of these barriers were outside of the Home Office’s control.

To promote a greater understanding and transparency of the asylum system, we have prioritised deciding older claims and those made by more vulnerable individuals, whose claims are more complex. This has resulted in a reduction in the proportion of claims decided within 6 months.

We are engaging stakeholders as part of our plans to introduce new service standards which will help inform how we will prioritise asylum decision making in the future. This will seek to address the concerns that have been raised with the current arrangements, additionally as part of our wider strategy, we aim to increase the overall number of caseworkers to reduce the total number of outstanding claims.