Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum decisions her Department made without substantive asylum interviews in the past 12 months.

The Home Office are unable to state how many asylum decisions have been made without substantive asylum interviews in the past 12 months as this information is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

The Home Office carefully considers all asylum claims on a case by case basis, irrespective of their nationality or group, based on their individual merits, against a background of relevant case law and up to date country information.

In most asylum cases we will ask the claimant to complete a Preliminary Information Questionnaire (PIQ). The information contained in the PIQ (or Statement of Evidence Form for children) will be used alongside all of the other evidence already held about the claim to help determine whether or not it is appropriate to omit an asylum interview.

The criteria for when a substantive asylum interview can be omitted are contained in Paragraph 339NA of the Immigration Rules and include cases where we are able to take a positive decision on the basis of evidence available, or if the claimant is unfit or unable to be interviewed owing to enduring circumstances beyond their control. It would be inappropriate to adopt a blanket approach to certain nationalities or groups because of the differing circumstances of each claim.