Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the (a) financial and (b) other impacts of delays in assessing voluntary return applications by the Voluntary Returns Service on applicants remaining in the UK.

Information on processing times for voluntary return applications is not held centrally and is not currently captured in a publishable form.

Our priority is to consider applications as efficiently and fairly as possible. There may, however, be circumstances which delay the progression of a case, for example waiting for evidence that is of importance in deciding an application, or a need to obtain documentation to enable travel. In these circumstances, regular reviews are undertaken at appropriate intervals, dependant on the reason why the application cannot be progressed.