Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to process the backlog of applications for asylum in the UK.

The Home Office are currently dealing with a sustained high level of new asylum claims, including from those who have recently arrived on small boats, which is creating additional pressures on the asylum system.

The Home Office have an asylum transformation programme which will help bring down the backlog in cases by increasing the number of decision makers processing cases, improving the use of digital technology, including remote interviews, to speed up the process and concentrating on deciding older claims, cases with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children.