Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 September 2023 to Question 198491 on Asylum: Applications, how long the training lasts for newly recruited decision makers; who provides the training for newly recruited decision makers; and what steps she is taking to (a) provide support to new decision makers and (b) monitor the (i) quality and (ii) consistency of decision making.

Asylum Operations provides staff with specialist training through a comprehensive programme of classroom-based learning and a mentoring framework as part of our plan for a highly skilled workforce. This is delivered by a dedicated team of senior grade trainers and higher-grade technical experts, thereby helping to maintain case-working expertise and improve decision maker capability.

Work has been undertaken to review and redesign the training of Asylum decision makers. The focus of the project is to ensure that the right training is given at the right time. The expectation is that by moving to this model it will help decision makers become more productive in a quicker timeframe as the training will be more focused on the type of casework that they are assigned and the tasks they will need to undertake at that time.