Conclusion 2

The focus on streamlining decision-making may inadvertently lead to more flawed decisions, or the withdrawal of genuine asylum claims. The Home Office is now collecting more detailed information through a questionnaire for people from six countries where most claims result in asylum being granted, in the hope that it will be able to make decisions quicker and without lengthy interviews. The Home Office worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to reform its asylum processes, but we share the UNHCR’s concern that the poor design of the new questionnaire may affect caseworkers’ ability to make the correct decision on a claim. We also note the significant increase in ‘administrative’ decisions, where claims are withdrawn either by the claimant, or directly by the Home Office if someone has not complied with their requirements. We are concerned about how the Home Office will assure itself that it is not incorrectly withdrawing genuine asylum claims, should the significant number of withdrawals persist. Recommendation 2: Alongside its Treasury Minute response the Home Office should write to the Committee setting out: • The number of administrative decisions made each month since the introduction of its streamlined asylum process; 6 The Asylum Transformation Programme • How its internal quality assurance arrangements have changed to reflect the introduction of the streamlined asylum process, what these arrangements have shown about quality of decisions made under the process, and how learning from this has been used; and • What further evaluation of the streamlined asylum process is planned, in particular to ensure that the Home Office makes the right asylum decisions.