Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the current backlog of outstanding cases before the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of appeals in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) that have not been determined and remain outstanding, as at December 2024, is 75,000.
Published statistics can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024.
This Government inherited a broken justice system with record and rising court backlogs. The Lord Chancellor recently announced that for 2025-26, the Ministry of Justice will provide a total budget of £2,538 million. For the Immigration and Asylum Chamber this will mean funding to support 14,400 sitting days. We expect to be able to increase this substantially with additional funding from the Home Office, taking it to near maximum capacity and helping to speed up asylum claims. This builds on the Government’s work to restore order to the immigration system so that every part – border security, case processing, appeals and returns – operates efficiently.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the estimated annual cost is of operating the immigration tribunal system, by (a) legal aid, (b) judges and (c) administrative support.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The final budgets relating to the work of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (IAC) tribunals in the 2024/25 financial year were:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of tribunal appeals that are submitted by people with previous failed asylum or deportation claims.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber hears all appeals made against refusal decisions made by the Home Office on the basis of the application made to them. An asylum seeker or human rights claimant who has already appealed cannot appeal again unless they make further submissions which have not previously been considered and amount to a ‘fresh claim’.
The Tribunal does not collate data on historic failed claims that do not form the basis of the appeal before it. Accordingly, the information requested is not centrally held.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court hours have been spent on immigration-related cases involving people with no legal right to remain in the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally by HMCTS. The Home Office collect and categorise data on the numbers of people with no legal right to remain in the UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time taken is to conclude appeals brought by migrants who have entered the UK illegally against deportation orders.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally. Data on the arrival status of people who go on to appeal Home Office decisions is recorded by the Home Office not the First tier Tribunal.
General information on the average clearance time for an immigration appeal in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (IAC) is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of abolishing legal aid for people who entered the UK illegally.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Determinations of eligibility for legal aid are made in accordance with the provisions of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and regulations made under that Act, passed under the previous government.
Under the current regime, the UK has specific obligations under the UN Refugee Convention to provide access to justice for those seeking asylum. In addition, provision of legal aid for those seeking protection is important to maintain an effective asylum system, helping the Government to deliver commitments on reducing the asylum backlog and ending hotel use. In light of that, there are no current plans to abolish legal aid for those who may have entered the country illegally. In all cases, the application for legal aid would be subject to a means and, crucially, a merits test.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what percentage of immigration appeals have been pending for more than 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The percentage of open appeals pending before the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) for more than 12 months, as at 31 December 2024 can be found in the table below:
No. of cases pending more than 12 months | Overall Open Caseload | % of Overall Open Caseload |
14,554 | 74,969 | 19% |
This government inherited a broken justice system with record and rising court backlogs. The Lord Chancellor recently announced that for 2025-26, the Ministry of Justice will provide a total budget of £2,538 million. For the Immigration and Asylum Chamber this will mean funding to support 14,400 sitting days. We expect to be able to increase this substantially with additional funding from the Home Office, taking it to near maximum capacity and helping to speed up asylum claims. This builds on the Government’s work to restore order to the immigration system so that every part – border security, case processing, appeals and returns – operates efficiently.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will provide sentencing data by (a) ethnicity and (b) nationality to the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth's private inquiry into grooming gangs.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of offenders sentenced, which can be filtered to specific offences and broken down by defendant ethnicity. This can be obtained in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
However, data held centrally does not include an offender’s nationality. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate cost.
Data held centrally includes details of sexual grooming offences but does not identify if this was gang related. Gang related sexual grooming offences are not identifiable separately as there is no single offence code to specifically cover offences related to gangs.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many immigration tribunal cases have been adjourned more than once in the last year; and for what reasons.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the average waiting time for an immigration appeal to be heard.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
General information on average waiting times for an immigration appeal in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024.