Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the average administrative cost per asylum applicant of processing an asylum claim, including costs associated with interviews, interpretation, legal support and casework.

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

A breakdown of Asylum Costs and Productivity, is published in Table ASY_04 of the Immigration and Protection Data on GOV.UK: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK.

The latest published data indicates the total asylum cost was £4,757,226,306 for the financial year 2024/25. The average unit cost was £25,122 for an asylum claim in the financial year 2023/24.

The notes indicate the costs of managing an asylum claim include costs associated with deciding a case (screening clients, interviews and issuing a decision). However, they also include additional costs associated with appeals, support, detention, enforcement, staffing and buildings costs.