Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides to asylum caseworkers on the extent to which country-of-origin information should be (a) used in interviews and (b) evaluated in claimant decision-making.

The references to Country of Origin information across Asylum Policy Instructions are numerous.

The majority of the detail on how asylum caseworkers should consider this information, both in interviews and in final decisions, is contained in the Asylum Policy Instruction on Assessing Credibility And Refugee Status.

However, this is an issue which cuts across a number of areas including interviewing, with detail on this contained in the Asylum Interviews guidance, and is also featured in specific pieces of guidance on issues such as gender identity. It also forms part of the Foundation Training Programme for caseworkers.