Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on processing asylum claims in each of the last three years.

The number of asylum decision makers, the total cost of managing asylum operations and productivity is published in table ASY_04 in the quarterly immigration and protection data:

Immigration and protection data: Q4 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The number of asylum applications in each year from 2001 – 2022 can be found in the ASY_D01 Tab of the published asylum and resettlement data table:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2022/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement

The asylum system has been under mounting pressure for several years and we are taking immediate action to accelerate decision-making and streamline processes. We have already doubled our decision makers over the last 2 years, and we are continuing to recruit more.