Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken for asylum decisions to be made.

The Home Office does not publish data on the average time taken to make a decision on an asylum application. In addition, we cannot provide data on the average time taken to receive a decision in particular region such as Yorkshire and Humber, such data can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

However, the Home Office does publish data on the number of pending applications that have been awaiting an initial decision for more or less than 6 months. This data can be found at Volume 1, as_01 of the Immigration Statistics December 2018: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/list-of-tables#asylum

In line with our ambition to promote a greater understanding and transparency of the asylum system and to develop service standards that are meaningful and command confidence, plans are underway for UKVI to implement new service standards for asylum case working. This change means UKVI will be moving away from the six-month service standard for straightforward cases which was introduced in 2014.

It had become clear that the current service standard no longer best served those that used our services and a number of stakeholders had been concerned that not all cases were captured by it.

For these reasons, it has been agreed to change how Asylum Operations proritise their workload. This means, in the short term, Asylum Operations will reprioritise cases by focusing on claims with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC). Additionally, cases where an individual has already received a decision, but a reconsideration is required, will also be prioritised. The implications of the change on applicants have been considered and appropriate mitigations put in place, with the most vulnerable groups being prioritised as appropriate.

The intention is for this approach to bring balance back to the asylum system while steps are taken to increase the capacity of the asylum decision making system and focus on process improvements to deliver better quality decisions more efficiently.

To come to a longer-term arrangement for service standards that meet the needs of those seeking asylum and the country, UKVI have engaged with key partners in the Strategic Engagement Group (SEG) and other NGOs to redesign the way in which claims are prioritised. This engagement started on 4 December 2018 and over 100 organisations were invited to service standards workshops, which included members of SEG and National Asylum Stakeholder Forum (NASF) sub groups. 41 organisations out of the 100 attended workshops nationally.

We aim to ensure that we design our new service standards to deliver a world leading immigration service for those seeking asylum in the UK.