To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his response is to the recommendations of the Independent Race Monitor in his 2005-06 Annual Report that initial decisions on asylum cases should be made after an informed inquisitional hearing at which the claimant’s legal advisors could appear and argue the facts of the claim directly; and if he will make a statement. (119096)

The Home Secretary’s response to the Independent Race Monitor’s report 2005-06 (dated November 2006) is published at: http://www.ind.homeoffice. gov.uk/aboutus/reports/independent_race_mon. In this response he indicated that consideration is being given to making the substantive asylum interview one in which the claimant’s legal adviser takes a more significant role in the discussion of those aspects of the claim which are accepted and those which are not, thus enabling a more soundly based decision to be reached.

As part of changes to the asylum process under the New Asylum Model (NAM), the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) and Legal Services Commission (LSC) are currently undertaking a joint pilot at IND’s regional asylum team office in Solihull. This seeks to improve asylum decisions through early interaction between the case owner dealing with the application and the applicant’s legal adviser to ensure the key issues in the case are identified before the asylum interview. The pilot will be subject to rigorous evaluation, after which a decision will be made about whether to integrate this approach permanently in the asylum processes and procedures.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the nationality of asylum applicants is determined in circumstances where the applicant asserts they are not lawfully entitled to the passport on which they entered the United Kingdom. (119206)

The nationality of an applicant will be determined by looking at and weighing up all the available documentary and oral evidence. Current guidelines for caseworkers involved in determining nationality in doubtful nationality cases can be read at:

www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/chapter5/apmsections/nationalitydoubtfulcases.pdf

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum applicants whose application was made before (a) 1 January 2001, (b) 1 January 2002 and (c) 1 January 2003 have yet to have their case determined by his Department. (119370)

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary referred to the large number of unresolved records relating to asylum cases in his statement to Parliament on 19 July 2006. The vast majority of these cases are beyond the initial decision stage. In some instances, the records indicate that an initial decision is awaited, but most of these are expected to be due to data errors. Work is under way on data cleansing and aligning the electronic and paper file records. This is focused primarily on the priority cases referred to by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary in his statement to Parliament on 25 July 2006.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is notified of planned early morning immigration enforcement visits to asylum seekers before they occur. (119834)

Chapters 46 and 47 of the Operational Enforcement Manual (OEM), available on the IND website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk, set out the levels of authority of enforcement visits, including when Ministers are advised about forthcoming operations.