Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to assess the process for managing asylum applications in Germany before the conclusion of the passage of the Nationality and Borders Bill.

We are aware of various practices across EU member states, including Germany, with respect to processing asylum claims and maintain a consistent dialogue with our international partners to see what we can learn from their approach.

This government has been clear on its commitment to overhauling the current asylum system, which is obviously broken and in critical need of reform. The New Plan for Immigration brings about a suite of measures designed to reduce the abuse of the asylum system, improve efficiency and focus resources on those in most need of our support.

The Home Office is pursuing a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives which will speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce the numbers who are awaiting an interview or decision. This includes almost doubling decision makers number to c.1,000 and providing improved training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff.