Immigration and Asylum: Appeals

Lord Bishop of Manchester Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

If the noble Lord, as a past Cabinet Minister, has never trailed anything, I trust that he will stand up now and tell me that that is the case. I rest my case. But he raises an important point. The key issue is that all members of the new independent immigration appeals authority will have the required training. Decision-making expertise to make determinations will be part of that process of skills and experience. The body will be established in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Public Bodies Handbook. We are currently considering accountability and governance structures, including the body’s relationship with Parliament and with the Government. We will safeguard independent decision-making. I return to the trailing: the noble Lord has only 23 hours to wait for the publication of the Bill. I look forward to engaging with him on it in due course.

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, picking up on the point about training, can the Minister tell us what support will be available and what training will be offered to the adjudicators around religious literacy? Decisions regarding people’s cases often hinge on claims of religious persecution and involve people who have deeply traumatic pasts. They must, therefore, be well-informed and accurate.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

It is an extremely important point. It is self-evident that we want the individuals who undertake this very serious role to have the required training and support to do it in an effective way. All members of the new independent immigration appeals authority will have the required decision-making expertise to make determinations on appeal cases through a comprehensive training programme and will possess a range of skills and experience. The organisation of that will be down to the new body. The Bill that we are producing tomorrow will establish that body, which is independent of government. The key point I bring the House back to is that we have a backlog of around 151,000. We currently have capacity for around 26,000 extra sittings that we have put in place. It is not possible to end the backlog without significant changes and that is the purpose of this policy.