To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many outstanding applications for (a) registration and (b) naturalisation are awaiting

Citizenship applications outstanding in caseworking groups
	Registration	Naturalisation	Total
December 1987	n/a	n/a	55,374
March 1988	45,723	28,674	74,397
June 1988	n/a	n/a	79,143
September 1988	n/a	n/a	95,971
December 1988	n/a	n/a	119,276
March 1989	84,438	41,154	125,592
June 1989	86,452	52,318	138,770
September 1989	70,858	63,877	134,735
December 1989	55,239	64,930	120,169
March 1990	38,832	65,050	103,882
May 1990	33,755	64,273	98,028

n/a = not availableThe average processing times for cases completed in May 1990 was 24 months for registrations and 29 months for naturalisations. We aim to reduce these waiting times as soon as practicable.