Asylum Applications
Home Department
Written answers and statements, 26 October 2009
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the average time taken to process an application for asylum.
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)
In December we met our targets to conclude 60 per cent. of new cases within six months. That means not only that decisions were taken early but that in a significant proportion of refusals, removal from the UK was affected within six months of application.
In 1997 it took on average 22 months merely to reach an initial decision. We can only speculate how much longer than that it was taking to remove those who were refused at that time.