Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time was for an asylum interview in the most recent period for which figures are available.

The Home Office is unable to state the average waiting time for an asylum interview, in the most recent period for which figures are available, as the Home Office does not publish this information and it could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

However, the Home Office does publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main applicants only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2020/list-of-tables