Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Accepted
Paragraph: 52
Require the Home Office to detail plans for rapidly increasing asylum decision-making rates
Conclusion
The Prime Minister told the House of Commons Liaison Committee in March that around 4,000 cases had been cleared in the three months since he pledged to clear the backlog outstanding at 28 June last year. We invite the Home Office to set out how it plans rapidly to increase that rate of decision-making if it is not to break the Prime Minister’s promise to clear 92,601 cases by the end of 2023.
Government Response Summary
The government committed to clearing the legacy asylum backlog by the end of 2023 through a Streamlined Asylum Process, process efficiencies like shorter interviews, and increasing decision makers to 2,500 by September 2023 with redesigned, shorter training.
Paragraph Reference:
52
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Prime Minister pledged to clear the backlog of the 92,601 initial asylum decisions relating to claims made before 28 June 2022 (“legacy claims”) by the end of 2023. One way in which we will achieve that is via the Streamlined Asylum Process which is centred around accelerating the processing of manifestly well-founded asylum claims. We are on track to clear the historic asylum backlog by the end of 2023. Provisional data indicates, at 30 July 2023, there were 136,779 cases in total (main applicants only) awaiting an initial decision and the legacy backlog has been reduced to 62,157 cases. The remaining 74,622 cases awaiting an initial decision were made on or after 28 June 2022 and are referred to as ‘flow cases’. Please note, data for April to July 2023 is provisional and has not been cleansed to remove duplicates. Since 23 February 2023, legacy claims from nationals of Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen area also considered through the Streamlined Asylum Process and on 8 June 2023, this was extended to include flow claims (those lodged on or after 28 June 2022), including claimants from Sudan. Since April 2023, legacy children’s claims from nationals of Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, Syria and Vietnam have been considered through the Streamlined Asylum Process. This process for Accompanied and Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children will enable cases to be progressed more quickly and clear the backlog of outstanding initial asylum decisions. In addition to the Streamlined Asylum Process, the remaining legacy backlog has been grouped into ‘cohorts’ based on volume of claims, grant rate, compliance rate and support rate. Iran and Iraq are the two highest volume cohorts within the legacy backlog. From 19 May 2023 onwards, legacy claimants from nationals of Iran and Iraq will be requested to complete a questionnaire in order to provide information ahead of an asylum interview. This will help to decide their asylum claims more efficiently. system. This includes: shorter, more focused interviews; removing unnecessary interviews; making guidance simpler and more accessible; dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded; and recruiting extra decision makers. This will take our expected number of decision makers to 2,500 by September 2023. There is currently work underway to redesign the training of Asylum decision makers. The focus of the project is to ensure that the right training is given at the right time. The expectation is that by moving to this model it will help decision makers become more productive in a quicker timeframe as the training will be more focused on the type of cases they are going to work and the tasks they will need to undertake at that time. The current plan will see the initial training reduced from 9 to 2–3 weeks with further training given as the decision maker progresses.