Naturalisation (Hansard, 4 July 1991)

§ 9. Mr. Evennett
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for naturalisation are currently being processed; and what is the average time taken.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
At 24 June 1991, there were 68,315 applications for citizenship outstanding. The average processing times for those certificates issued in May were 34 months for certificates of naturalisation, and 26 months for certificates of registration.

§ Mr. Evennett
The delays that my hon. Friend's reply reveal are naturally a matter of considerable distress and disappointment to applicants. When does my hon. Friend expect the process to be speeded up and the backlog to be cleared?

§ Mr. Lloyd
The process is speeding up, and the average waiting time has started to fall. In April, it was 36 weeks—

§ Mr. Corbett
Thirty six months.

§ Mr. Lloyd
The hon. Gentleman is right—36 months. I expect the downward trend to continue—until, I hope, it is a matter of weeks. We are seeing the benefit of moving the nationality department to Liverpool, as the Government would like to create employment there. The staff have taken over the work quickly and effectively, and I believe that the waiting time will fall rapidly over the coming months—and weeks.

§ Mr. Vaz
The Minister might think that it is an amusing problem, but it is disgraceful that the waiting time has escalated. The Minister will know that the Select Committee on Home Affairs published a report last year that described a delay of 27 months as indefensible. The Minister will know also that I have reported him to the parliamentary commissioner over the delays in his Department. Does not the Minister realise that if it was any other Department, he would have been sacked by now? When will the Minister make available the resources necessary to clear the backlog immediately?

§ Mr. Lloyd
Of course I know that the hon. Gentleman has said those things, because he said them to me several times. I know also that the hon. Gentleman knows very well the reason for the backlog. In 1987, applications 430 equivalent to six years' work were received. More than half of them came from applicants who had been in this country since 1973, and who therefore could have registered in any of those 14 years. Although the waiting list is being rapidly reduced, the hon. Gentleman will appreciate that those applying for citizenship are already resident in this country and that there is no doubt of their right to be here—so the inconvenience caused to most of them is small, if real.