To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to draw conclusions from the Solihull pilot project providing legal advice to asylum applicants from the first interview onwards; whether they will publish a report; and when this project may be extended to other places. [HL2148]

The Government are keen to look at the benefits of providing early legal advice to asylum applicants but need to be sure that those benefits do not affect our ability to conclude asylum decisions swiftly or have unwelcome costs implications for the system. The conclusions of the report on the pilot are incomplete and limited and make it difficult to draw any firm conclusions about nationwide implementation of the process. It is proposed to run an expanded version of the pilot later in the year to allow for fuller, accurate analysis from which we can draw conclusions.

The report has been released to a number of stakeholders, and I am arranging for a copy to be placed in the Library of both Houses.