To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 10 September 2007, Official Report, column 1930W, on asylum, what further information is being solicited from unsuccessful asylum claimants; how many such individuals have been contacted; when she expects to provide an update on the case resolution programme; what reports have been produced on the programme; if she will publish those reports; and if she will make a statement on her plans for dealing with unsuccessful asylum claimants subject to the case resolution programme in each year since the scheme began. (175267)

[holding answer 18 December 2007]: Cases are considered on an individual basis. The nature of any additional information required, therefore, will depend upon the circumstances of the particular case being considered.

The chief executive wrote to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 17 December 2007 about the progress made by the case resolution directorate. A copy of the letter is available in the House of Commons Library. As stated in the letter, we intend to report every six months on the number of files that have been concluded.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum cases the Case Resolution Directorate is dealing with; how many of these have been brought by residents of London constituencies, broken down by constituency; and if she will make a statement. (175362)

We have previously estimated that there are around 400,000 to 450,000 electronic and paper records, although this is difficult to assess accurately as many case records are duplicates or errors. This figure does not therefore equate to numbers of asylum applicants.

The information on the number of cases brought by residents of London constituencies, broken down by constituency is not available in the format requested.

We will provide updates on progress on the work of the Case Resolution Directorate on a six monthly basis to the Home Affairs Select Committee. The first of these was published on 17 December 2007 and announced that we have concluded 52,000 cases to date, of which two thirds were either removed or discovered to be duplicate files or errors.