Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to develop new country information for Syria; and when she plans to resume processing asylum claims.

As we explained at the time of announcing a pause on decision making, we have kept that pause under constant review. Without stable, objective information on which to base an accurate assessment of a claimant’s risk on return to Syria, we are unable to make robust, reliable decisions on claims for international protection. The Home Office has been gathering and assessing objective country information from a range of sources about the situation in Syria since the fall of the al-Assad regime. As soon as there is a sufficiently clear basis upon which to make determinations, asylum decision-making will recommence.