Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refusals of asylum claims have included quotations from religious texts in each of the last five years.

This information is not recorded in a way that can be easily retrieved.

We are urgently investigating reports which indicate that some asylum decisions were not drafted in accordance with our policy.

Published Home Office policy guidance contains detailed instructions on how asylum decision makers are expected to approach religious based claims. Our policy makes clear that when assessing such claims, decision makers are expected to ask appropriate and sensitive questions based on an understanding of religious concepts, philosophical viewpoints and forms of persecution a person may suffer due to their religion, belief or lack of belief.