Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 2 September (HL141), what assessment they have made of the joint report by the APPGs on Poverty and on Migration, The Effects of the UK Immigration, Asylum and Refugee Policy on Poverty, published on 30 April.

We are determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly. Clearing the asylum backlog is our priority.

It is a financial necessity to start clearing the asylum backlog so that those costs do not continue to mount up at the expense of the taxpayer. The Home Secretary changed the law to remove the retrospective application of the Illegal Migration Act. This allows decision-makers to decide asylum claims from individuals who have arrived in the UK from 7 March 2023. Asylum interviews have commenced, and asylum claims are now being decided for individuals who arrived in the UK from 7 March 2023.

The Home Office continues to invest in a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives to speed up and simplify decision making, reduce the time people spend in the asylum system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision.