Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken has been for her Department to process asylum claims for cases of (a) unaccompanied asylum seeking children and (b) other cases of acute vulnerability in each month since January 2019.

The Home Office does not publish data relating to the average time taken to process asylum claims for cases of (a) unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and (b) other cases of acute vulnerability in each month since January 2019.

Data on current performance can be found at tab Asy_10 of the Asylum Transparency Data August 2019 at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-august-2019

We are committed to ensuring that asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay, to ensure that individuals who need protection are granted asylum as soon as possible and can start to integrate and rebuild their lives, including those granted at appeal.

Whilst steps are taken to increase capacity and focus on process improvements to deliver better quality asylum decisions more efficiently, we have moved away from the 6-month service standard to concentrate on older claims, cases with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC). Additionally, we are prioritising cases where an individual has already received a decision, but a reconsideration is required.

This approach is intended to bring balance back to the asylum system. We have engaged with stakeholders as part of our plans to introduce new service standards. We are considering this valuable insight as we work to shape the new service standards.