Recommendation 26

The Bill should be amended to remove the provisions that emphasise damage to credibility and weight of evidence as a result of delay. If the Government is intent on penalising late submission of evidence, it should only introduce penalties that do not impact on consideration of the substantive asylum claim. At the very least, the Bill must be amended to clarify that a failure to meet a deadline ‘may’ be damaging to the applicant’s credibility or to the weight given to evidence, rather than that it must.