Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been waiting more than 12 months for an asylum decision; and if she will grant those people Discretionary Leave to Remain.

The Home Office does not publish data on the number of people waiting for more than 12 months for an asylum decision.

The latest Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release, on data to the year ending March 2020, can be accessed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Table Asy D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’ contains information on the number of asylum applications awaiting an initial decision or further review and are published in. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.

All asylum claims are carefully considered on their individual merits on the evidence available to the decision maker. We are committed to ensuring that asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay, so that those who need protection are granted as soon as possible.

Discretionary Leave (DL) is granted outside the Immigration Rules in accordance with published Home Office policy. DL covers those few individuals who do not qualify for any leave under the Rules, but where there are exceptional or compassionate reasons for allowing them to remain in the UK; as such, it is intended to be used sparingly and decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Delays in decision making occur for a number of reasons, some of which are outside of the Home Office’s control, and it would generally not be appropriate to grant DL under these circumstances.