Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps have been taken to improve the speed at which outstanding asylum applications are completed.

The Home Office has plans to improve the speed at which outstanding asylum claims are decided. These include a staff retention strategy to ensure it retains its highly skilled asylum decision makers, further expansion of digital processes to increase caseworking flexibility and the creation of a new team in Bootle which has been specifically established to tackle the older cases in the asylum system. This team has been designed to establish and roll out best practise in the management of older cases.