Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of right to work applications made by asylum seekers were accepted in 2021-22.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her department calculates the weekly allowance received by asylum seekers on aspen cards.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The level of the allowance given to those supported under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (“the 1999 Act”) is generally reviewed each year to ensure it meets an asylum seeker’s essential living needs. Reports on the reviews are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/report-on-review-of-cash-allowance-paid-to-asylum-seekers.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time is from submitting an asylum application for a person to be called for their substantive interview.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not currently report on the average time that is taken between the date of an asylum claim to the date of a substantive asylum interview taking place or the date of a decision outcome as this information is not published or held in a reportable format.
However, the Home Office does publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main applicants only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
List of tables - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2022/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement).
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time is between a person submitting an asylum application and receiving an outcome.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not currently report on the average time that is taken between the date of an asylum claim to the date of a substantive asylum interview taking place or the date of a decision outcome as this information is not published or held in a reportable format.
However, the Home Office does publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main applicants only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
List of tables - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2022/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement).
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to allocate additional (a) financial resources and (b) other support to local authorities to support asylum seekers who have had their claims rejected under streamlined asylum processing.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office has a legal obligation, as set out in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (“the 1999 Act”), to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
If an asylum seeker has their asylum claim refused, they usually cease to be eligible to receive support provided under section 95 of the 1999 act 21 days after they are given notice that their asylum claim has been refused, or where there is an appeal, 21 days after their appeal is finally rejected. Asylum claims considered under the Streamlined Asylum Process will not be refused on the basis of the questionnaire alone. Where there is insufficient information in the questionnaire to grant protection status, the claimant will be invited to an interview in order to inform the decision.
Failed asylum seekers may be supported under section 4(2) of the 1999 Act if they meet certain eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support asylum seekers who have received questionnaires under streamlined asylum processing and are unable to access legal advice or translation services.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
For those who are unable to return the questionnaire within 20 working days, a reminder will be sent to the claimant allowing a further 10-working days to complete and return it to the Home Office. A further extension can be requested where the timeframe cannot be met, for example because the claimant has serious medical conditions which is impacting their ability to respond to the questionnaire.
The asylum claim questionnaires are in English as is generally the case for immigration paperwork across the Department. If necessary, claimants can utilise legal representatives, Non-Government Organisations and other support networks to help them respond to the questionnaire.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to provide more detailed guidance on when individuals can expect a decision on (a) immigration or (b) asylum applications where the Department has been unable to provide a full decision within the initial timeframe.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
UK Visas and Immigration are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas and for applications made inside the UK.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Prioritisation guidance is currently being developed and will be published in due course. This will include an explanation of the circumstances in which a case may be expedited.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of asylum seekers housed in contingency hotels who have been waiting over a year for an outcome on their asylum application.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of applications for a visa application fee waiver from inside the UK were accepted in 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Data on what proportion of the people who qualified for visa fee waivers applied from inside the UK is not routinely available.
Data is published on the GOV.UK website that lists the overall number of fee waiver applications that have been processed, resolved or remain pending a decision. The latest data can be found at www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q4-2022, on tab FW_01.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her department has taken to reduce the waiting time for people awaiting (a) a substantive interview and (b) an initial decision on their asylum claim.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
To further accelerate decision making we are driving productivity improvements by streamlining interviews, simplifying processes, and dealing with cases more swiftly where they are certified as clearly unfounded.
We have already doubled our decision makers over the last 2 years, and we are continuing to recruit more. This will take our expected number of decision makers to 1,800 by summer and 2,500 by September 2023.