Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has undertaken Watchlist and Information Control Unit checks on all asylum applications in the last 10 years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
When an individual claims asylum, the Home Office conducts mandatory identity, criminality and security checks. Biographic and biometric data are routinely checked against relevant Home Office systems and police criminality databases including domestic and international data.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Police National Computer checks have been carried out on all asylum applicants in the last 10 years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
When an individual claims asylum, the Home Office conducts mandatory identity, criminality and security checks. Biographic and biometric data are routinely checked against relevant Home Office systems and police criminality databases including domestic and international data.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what background checks her Department conducts on irregular migrants applying for asylum.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
When an individual claims asylum, the Home Office conducts mandatory identity, criminality and security checks. Biographic and biometric data are routinely checked against relevant Home Office systems and police criminality databases including domestic and international data.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the staff sickness rate for Asylum Decision Makers employed by the Home Office was (a) on 3 June 2025 and (b) in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Details of sickness absence and staff turnover are routinely published by the Home Office in the department’s annual report and accounts, but are not broken down by the individual tasks to which members of staff have been assigned over the previous year.
The training schedule for asylum decision-makers was revised in 2023, with the initial training period reduced from nine weeks to around three weeks, with further specialist training provided as the decision-maker progresses. As a general rule, asylum decision-makers will complete their initial training period prior to taking on casework.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the standard training period is for Asylum Decision Makers employed by her Department; and whether this period has changed in the last 10 years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Details of sickness absence and staff turnover are routinely published by the Home Office in the department’s annual report and accounts, but are not broken down by the individual tasks to which members of staff have been assigned over the previous year.
The training schedule for asylum decision-makers was revised in 2023, with the initial training period reduced from nine weeks to around three weeks, with further specialist training provided as the decision-maker progresses. As a general rule, asylum decision-makers will complete their initial training period prior to taking on casework.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Asylum Decision Makers employed by the Home Office on 3 June 2025 had not completed the full training programme required for their role.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Details of sickness absence and staff turnover are routinely published by the Home Office in the department’s annual report and accounts, but are not broken down by the individual tasks to which members of staff have been assigned over the previous year.
The training schedule for asylum decision-makers was revised in 2023, with the initial training period reduced from nine weeks to around three weeks, with further specialist training provided as the decision-maker progresses. As a general rule, asylum decision-makers will complete their initial training period prior to taking on casework.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Asylum Decision Makers left their role after (a) three, (b) six and (c) nine months in post.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Details of sickness absence and staff turnover are routinely published by the Home Office in the department’s annual report and accounts, but are not broken down by the individual tasks to which members of staff have been assigned over the previous year.
The training schedule for asylum decision-makers was revised in 2023, with the initial training period reduced from nine weeks to around three weeks, with further specialist training provided as the decision-maker progresses. As a general rule, asylum decision-makers will complete their initial training period prior to taking on casework.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the highest number of further submissions was for an asylum application in last ten years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I welcome the Hon Member to her new role, and I wish her well representing the great people of Runcorn and Helsby.
The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work states that: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”
I regret that the information she has requested is not currently available from published statistics, and would require a manual trawl of case files to identify and collate, something that could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost of considering asylum applications at the further submissions stage in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I welcome the Hon Member to her new role, and I wish her well representing the great people of Runcorn and Helsby.
The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work states that: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”
I regret that the information she has requested is not currently available from published statistics, and would require a manual trawl of case files to identify and collate, something that could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the longest recorded duration is for an asylum application to remain in the further submissions process without conclusion.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I welcome the Hon Member to her new role, and I wish her well representing the great people of Runcorn and Helsby.
The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work states that: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”
I regret that the information she has requested is not currently available from published statistics, and would require a manual trawl of case files to identify and collate, something that could only be done at disproportionate cost.