HC Deb 16 December 1997 vol 303 cc82-3W
Fiona Mactaggart

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will estimate the time it will take his Department to complete work on applications made in December 1997 for(a) one year's leave to remain on the grounds of marriage, (b) settlement after having one year's stay on the grounds of marriage, (c) leave to remain as a student, (d) permission to stay under the provisions of the EU law and (e) asylum; [19026]

(2) what was the average time his Department took to deal with applications for (a) one year's leave to remain on the grounds of marriage, (b) settlement after having one year's stay on the grounds of marriage, (c) leave to remain as a student, (d) permission to stay under EU law and (e) asylum made in (i) November 1995, (ii) April 1996, (iii) November 1996 and (iv) April 1997. [19025]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

For applications on the basis of marriage, as a student or for asylum which have been decided, the available information is given in table 1. Data are not available in the same form for residence permits or residence documents issued. The percentages of applications decided within 1 month, 2 months or 6 months of receipt are given in table 2.

Data are also given for the latest available date. We expect to deal with most new marriage, student, and asylum applications made in December 1997 in shorter time scales than those shown for September or October 1997.

Table 1: Average time between application and decision, in months
Application type Month of decision
November 1995 April 1996 November 1996 April 1997 October 1997
One year's leave to remain after marriage 5.9 7.2 6.7 8.0 7.3
Settlement one year after marriage 2.5 2.2 2.2 2.6 3.1
Leave to remain as a student 2.1 3.8 3.0 4.3 3.1
Asylum:
Pre-1993 Act cases 40.3 43.7 47.8 53.2 58.2
Post 1993 Act cases 9.7 11.1 12.6 13.7 13.8

Table 2: Percentage of residence permits and residence documents issued
Per cent.
Month of decision
November 1995 April 1996 November 1996 April 1997 September 19971
Residence permits
within 1 month 37 45 56 33 11
within 2 months 70 69 82 63 35
within 6 months 96 92 96 88 67
Residence documents
within 1 month 23 22 22 16 6
within 2 months 40 51 41 40 19
within 6 months 84 73 74 64 43
1 The reduction in the percentage of permits and documents issued within these timescales compared with earlier returns reflects the fact that resources have been targeted at deciding older applications.