Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 16 May on the assessment of immigration and asylum applications, what assessment they have made of the impact on the quality of the first substantive interview of (1) the impartiality of the interviewer, (2) whether the interviewer is the same gender as the applicant, (3) the quality of any interpretation required, and (4) the availability of advance legal assistance to applicants; and whether they intend to provide advice from independent specialised paralegals to all immigration and asylum applicants in complex cases.

All asylum claims lodged in the UK are carefully considered on their individual merits against a background of relevant case law and up to date country information. We ensure that claimants are given every opportunity to disclose information relevant to their claim before a decision is taken, even where that information may be sensitive or difficult to disclose.

We are committed to delivering an asylum process that is gender sensitive and have developed an asylum gender action plan to achieve this building on the wider Government strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.

Furthermore there is a robust quality assurance process in place involving technical specialists which ensures that all policies related to deciding asylum claims are complied with, and supports a robust decision making process.