To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the evidential basis was for the statement in the Care Matters White Paper that 95 per cent. of asylum claims are rejected. (152953)

The evidence basis for the statement in the Care Matters White Paper regarding the percentage of negative decisions made on asylum claims from UASC was sourced from the Immigration Research and Statistics Service which is available from the Home Office website in two different formats.

1. National Statistics:

Statistics on UASC applications are published as part of the quarterly asylum bulletin. Statistics on UASC are also available in the annual asylum bulletin.

The most up to date data on the outcome of UASC asylum claims can be found on page 10 (point 12) of the Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2005, these statistics show that the numbers of UASC granted refugee status or humanitarian protection (HP) is very low (five per cent. in 2005). This document is available via the following link. The 2006 annual publication, and Q2 2007 quarterly publication will be published on August 21.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html

2. Management Information:

The management information report is produced quarterly and contains more detailed statistics on UASC. This report can also be sourced from the same website link as before.