Examination of Witnesses

Part of Nationality and Borders Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:01 pm on 21 September 2021.

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Photo of Paul Howell Paul Howell Conservative, Sedgefield 2:01, 21 September 2021

Q I get that, but I think it is in both directions as well.

I will come to the point I was going to make. The number of cases and the backlog are increasing at a faster rate than the number of applications. I would like to try to understand whether that is purely resource—you have indicated there are resource concerns anyway—or whether there are ways in which the Bill could be written so that it was easier to make decisions and the decisions could be clearer and swifter, rather than having too many complexities, which results in longer times before you get a first decision. Is it the Bill? Is it the resources? Is it a combination thereof?