Immigration: Standards

(asked on 15th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her timetable is for restoring pre-covid-19 service standards for (a) asylum applications and (b) other UK Visas and Immigration services.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 25th October 2021

Information on our immigration routes with service standards and whether they have been processed against these standards is available as part of our transparency data at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration

We have already made significant progress in prioritising asylum claims with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. Additionally, we are prioritising older claims and those where an individual has already received a decision, but a reconsideration is required.

The Home Office are pursuing a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives which will speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce the numbers who are awaiting an interview or decision. This includes almost doubling decision makers number to c.1,000 and providing improved training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff. We are continuing to develop existing and new technology to help build on recent improvements such as digital interviewing and move away from a paper-based system.

We have three key areas of focus in the short to medium term to reduce the number of outstanding asylum cases by improving efficiency and productivity, reducing the number of outstanding claims and building high performing teams. We are streamlining and digitalising the case working process to enable more effective workflow, appointment booking and decision-making. Asylum Operations are working to reintroduce a service standard and will be looking towards aligning potentially with changes being brought about by the New Plan for Immigration.

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