Asylum Seekers

House of Lords written question – answered at on 22 April 2013.

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Photo of Lord Hylton Lord Hylton Crossbench

To ask Her Majesty's Government what, if any, reduction there has been in the number of caseworkers interviewing and processing asylum applications in the past 12 months; and what assessment they have made of the impact of any such reduction on the quality and speed at which asylum claims are processed.

Photo of Lord Taylor of Holbeach Lord Taylor of Holbeach The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department

The information required on caseworker numbers in the now former agency, henceforth referred to as the Home Office, is not held in a format compatible with the request. However the Home Office does publish data against 15 key performance measures. Specifically, asylum intake;work in progress (WiP) cases;intake;asylum support costs;productivity;asylum unit cost;initial decisions in 30 days;cases concluded in six months;cases concluded in 12 months;cases concluded in 35 months;cases removed in 12 months;decision quality;appeal representation rate;appeal win rate; andasylum grant rate.

Our most recent published statistics on speed and quality of decisions are at the link below: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/further-key-data/asylum-performancel.xls?view=Binary.

The statistics show an asylum system which is performing steadily on quality and speed. On speed, although performance on initial decisions within 30 days fell slightly in FY11-12, conclusions overall are performing well:

asylum cases concluded within 12 months (up from 56% in FY 10-11, to 63% in FY 11-12);asylum cases concluded within 36 months (up from 63% in FY 10-11, to 70% in FY 11-12); and asylum cases concluded within six months steady at 53% in FYs 2010-11 and 2011-12.

Decision quality also rose from 88% in financial year FY 2010-11 to 89% in FY 2011-12.

To build on this, and further improve performance, the Home Office is implementing a new asylum operating model. This will see caseworkers concentrated in a smaller number of casework hubs with greater co-ordination and specialisation. Ahead of this, the Asylum Casework Directorate has initiated a national performance drive across all regional offices which is expected to show further improved performance in the next set of figures to be published.

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