Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to compensate the 17 people who received decisions from the Home Office last year on asylum claims that they had submitted more than 15 years ago.

In response to a recent Freedom of Information request, the Home Office provided figures which noted that, in 2017, 17 decisions were made on claims for asylum that had been submitted more than 15 years ago.

In the majority of these cases, whilst the Home Office database that registered the original claim for asylum was updated with a new outcome in 2017, the Home Office had also made an earlier decision on the asylum claim. For example, several of the entries made in 2017 were to update records where it had been identified that an individual had voluntarily left the United Kingdom at an earlier date. In other instances, new decisions were made on cases where individuals had previously lost contact with the Home Office.

UK Visas and Immigration has a formal complaints procedure for customers who are unhappy with the service that it provides. Under this procedure ex-gratia payments may be made in cases where it is found that maladministration has occurred.