Asylum: Applications

Jeremy Corbyn
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many outstanding asylum applications there are; and how many were first made (a) within the last (i) 12 months, (ii) two years and (iii) three years and (b) more than three years ago.

Mr. Byrne
The latest published figures show that the number of cases (excluding dependants) recorded as awaiting an initial decision was 5,700 at the end of March 2007. Of this total, 4,300 cases were work in progress, i.e. the application had been outstanding for six months or less.

Information on when outstanding asylum applications were first made could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records.

Information on outstanding asylum applications is published quarterly and annually. Copies of these publications are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:

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