Asylum: Appeals

(asked on 16th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedures are in place to ensure that her Department's Further Submissions Unit telephone helpline has sufficient capacity to answer calls.


Answered by
Brandon Lewis Portrait
Brandon Lewis
This question was answered on 25th October 2017

The Home Office implemented a new policy on 30 March 2015 requiring all failed asylum seekers (FAS) whose appeal rights become exhausted but wish to make a further asylum submission, to do so in-person. This change was introduced to improve the handling and processing times of applications. Importantly the in person requirement allows the Home Office to check the identity of those lodging further submissions, reduce the risk of fraud and provides a means to ask questions during the appointment, where necessary, so that we can make a decision more quickly. FAS who want to submit further submissions on asylum or human rights grounds are required to telephone the further submissions unit and book an appointment to submit their further submissions in person in Liverpool.

Lead in times and appointment availability can vary and emergency appointments are offered within a week for those individuals who meet the criteria. The Home Office has however, recently increased the number of appointments from 150 to 180 a week to reduce waiting times further [10800 & 108007].

The further submission appointments booking line is currently resourced to meet the existing demand and this remains under continuous review. The appointment booking line does not current have capability to record information on average waiting times for speaking with advisers and the information is not available in the format requested [108004 &108009].

The information requested on; number of applicants living in Scotland who have been refused (108005) and granted (108006) permission to submit their applications is not available in the format requested. The Home Office does not refuse or grant permission to submit further submissions.

If an individual is eligible at the appointment booking stage, an in-person appointment will be offered. We will only accept postal applications in exceptional circumstances such as severe illness or disability, as specified within the published further submissions policy which can be accessed at the following:

The cost or inconvenience of travel are not acceptable reasons to waive the in- person requirement for further submissions to be lodged. Once an application has been lodged, the case will be decided by a Home Office caseworker [108005 & 108006].

The information requested on; number daily appointments [108008]; average number of calls [108010]; number of telephone advisers employed [108011]; and average number of people employed on the further submission unit [108012], in the last five years is not available in the format requested.

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