Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of applications to her Department under the Homes for Ukraine scheme on processing time for asylum applications; and what steps her Department is taking to mitigate any such impact.

The Home Office publishes data on how many asylum applications were waiting to be processed, but only up to and including March 2022. This data can be further broken down by nationality and is found in table Asy_D03 of the published immigration statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-applications-decisions-and-resettlement. Data for June 2022 will be published on 25 August 2022.

The Home Office publishes data on the number of asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main applicants only, up to and including March 2022. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2022/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement

The Homes for Ukraine Scheme is separate to the asylum process. All asylum claims, including those from nationals of Ukraine, are considered on a case-by-case basis, based on the facts presented by the claimant, regardless of the claimant’s country of origin and the prevailing situation.

Latest published immigration statistics show there has been an increase in the number of Ukrainian asylum claims. This data can be found in table Asy_D01:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-applications-decisions-and-resettlement

The Home Office are also continuing to invest in a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives that will speed up and simplify decision making, reduce the time people spend in the asylum system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision.

The department also have extensive recruitment and training plans in place, including career progression options to aid the retention of staff.