Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate the Government has made of (a) the number of asylum seekers who have had to wait more than six months for their application to be decided, (b) the total number of applications outstanding and (c) the need for additional resources to clear the backlog.

Information on asylum decision times and cases awaiting decision is published as part of the Government’s Transparency agenda the latest release of which can be found at can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-november-2016.

The Home Office no longer has an asylum backlog. In the year ending 31 March 2015 we completed a significant exercise in clearing all straightforward cases with a claim date preceding 1 April 2014. This required the progression of a number of cases far older than 12 months. We are now in a position where the majority of cases receive a decision within 6 months.