Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the backlog of Leave to Remain applications.

To help reduce the number of outstanding claims for protection we are investing in a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives that will speed up and simplify our processes, reduce the time people spend in the asylum system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision.

The Home Office is investing in innovative techniques, including AI, to explore how we can improve productivity, speed up processing the asylum backlog, and restore order in the asylum system.

We are also committed to ensuring our operational teams who process applications for leave to remain, have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand.