[holding answer 12 February 2009]: There were 945 Zimbabwean principal asylum seekers refused asylum at initial decision in 2005, 1,510 in 2006, 1,115 in 2007 and 1,660 between January and September 2008. All figures are rounded to the nearest five and 2007 and 2008 figures are provisional.
Information on asylum is published annually and quarterly. Annual figures are available in Table 3.3 of Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2007 published on 21 August 2008. Quarterly figures are available in the supplementary web tables published with the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistics Summary. Q4 2008 was available from 24 February 2009 from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration-asylum-stats.html