Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of progress in reducing the number of outstanding visa and asylum applications since July 2024.

We have maintained performance levels since July 2024 and are processing the majority of visa routes within their published customer service standards. The Home Office publishes data on its performance against its service level agreement for visas, including applications awaiting a decision, which can be found on the GOV.UK webpage: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK

All family visa and private life applications are carefully considered in line with the published family visa processing times available here: Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK. Where applicants require their application to be expedited owing to their individual compelling and compassionate circumstances, we will consider each case on its own merit.

Applicants on certain family routes may choose to use optional priority or super priority services, where available, for an additional fee to receive a faster decision on their application. Applicants using the priority service will usually receive a decision within five working days. Further information on the priority service is available here: Get a faster decision on your visa or settlement application: Applying for a faster decision - GOV.UK

For asylum claims, at the end of June 2024 there were 118,882 people awaiting an initial decision on their asylum claim. By comparison, the latest available published data shows that at the end of March 2026 there were 48,758 people (59% fewer) awaiting an initial decision on their asylum claim. The Home Office is continuing to make good progress in reducing this number further.