Asylum Claims Debate

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Department: Home Office

Asylum Claims

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts
Monday 25th March 2024

(1 month ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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My noble friend makes a very good point. On the subject of productivity and the processing of claims, the decision output has increased significantly over the past 24 months. In fact, it has more than tripled as we have worked to deliver commitments to process the legacy backlog. For example, in November 2023, the average per decision-maker was about 7.89 initial decisions. The year before, that number was more like 2.6—so efficiency is very much improving.

Baroness Butler-Sloss Portrait Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)
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My Lords, how many of those already denied asylum are still in the country?

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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I cannot answer that question in its entirety, but I can say that the number of complex legacy cases that remain has declined from about 4,500 to 3,900. Some of those are still in the country, but I do not know precisely how many.