To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if she will make it her policy to use gross domestic product per capita as the principal measurement when considering the economic effects of migration in developing policy; (206841)

The issue of the links between migration and GDP and GDP per head was raised by the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs in its report, The Economic Impact of Immigration (Session 2007-08 HL Paper 82). The Government are considering the recommendations made by the Committee and will provide a formal response shortly. I shall arrange for copies of the response to be placed in the Library of both Houses and for a copy to be sent to the hon. Gentleman.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many legacy immigration cases (a) were solved, (b) were closed for administrative or other reasons, (c) were no longer being actively investigated or worked on, (d) were resolved resulting in a deportation order, (e) resulted in a deportation being carried out and (f) resulted in a decision allowing the applicant to remain in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years. (206853)

In her letter of 17 December 2007 to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency stated that of the 52,000 older asylum cases that had been concluded, 19,000 had led to grants of leave, 16,000 had led to removals and 17,000 had been closed due to previously erroneous or duplicate records. This update records the position from the start of the Case Resolution Directorate work to clear the legacy from July 2006 up to the end of November 2007. Lin Homer is due to update the Home Affairs Select Committee on the work to clear the backlog next month.