Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the standard training period is for Asylum Decision Makers employed by her Department; and whether this period has changed in the last 10 years.

Details of sickness absence and staff turnover are routinely published by the Home Office in the department’s annual report and accounts, but are not broken down by the individual tasks to which members of staff have been assigned over the previous year.

The training schedule for asylum decision-makers was revised in 2023, with the initial training period reduced from nine weeks to around three weeks, with further specialist training provided as the decision-maker progresses. As a general rule, asylum decision-makers will complete their initial training period prior to taking on casework.