Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Rejected
Paragraph: 17
Prioritise addressing the asylum ‘work in progress’ caseload to unlock resources.
Conclusion
Addressing the asylum ‘work in progress’ caseload must be the Department’s highest priority within asylum operations. Doing that would unlock substantial resources, reduce current pressures on contingency and institutional accommodation and enable wider system reform including communities’ capacity to welcome—even sponsor— refugees.
Government Response Summary
The government explicitly rejected making the asylum caseload its highest priority, stating its primary focus is to deter and reduce illegal migration, while simultaneously working to speed up decision-making and reduce caseloads through various ongoing measures.
Paragraph Reference:
17
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
Our highest priority in this area is to deter and reduce illegal migration, including small boat crossings. At the same time we are working to speed up decision making and reduce costs and pressure on the overall system. modernise it. It is focused on increasing productivity by streamlining, simplifying, and digitalising processes to speed up decision making to increase efficiency and output. We are increasing the use of technology, improving screening so that more information is captured as early as possible, and have introduced accelerated decision-making procedures including shorter interviews and decision templates. Following the implementation of the Nationality and Borders Act we introduced a new model on 28 June which has enabled new asylum claims to be processed efficiently, as well as provide dedicated focus on working through claims made under the previous policy. We established an Asylum Action Group in May 2022 to further identify how we can rapidly improve productivity and reduce the work in progress and will roll out the most impactful measures over the coming months. We currently employ c.900 decision makers, and our recruitment continues. Our investment in people will have an impact on, and speed up, processing times. While decision maker retention continues to be risk, given that it can take up to 12 to 18 months for a decision maker to become fully proficient in their work; we are putting in place a range of interventions, including looking at job design, reward, management capability to reduce attrition, and reducing the time to be fully trained.