Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to resolve the backlog in processing asylum applications; and whether her Department has plans to hire more staff to process applications.

We are taking action to rapidly speed up processing times and eliminate the backlog of people waiting for initial asylum decisions by the end of 2023.

On 13 December 2022 the Prime Minister delivered an oral statement setting out a number of updates on the work ongoing to ease pressure on the asylum system. The aim is to clear the c.92k initial asylum decisions relating to claims made before 28 June 2022, when the Nationality and Borders Act measures came into force, by the end of 2023.

We are continuing to increase and aim to double the number of asylum decision makers, whilst improving productivity, volumes and speed of decision making so that people spend less time in asylum accommodation.

We are also streamlining and modernising the end-to-end process, with improved guidance, more focused and fewer interviews, enhancing use of digital technology, and we are introducing a more efficient approach to how claims are handled by decision makers.