§ Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthornasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the number of applicants for asylum whose applications have not yet been decided and who have not yet been called for interview—(a) who applied prior to 1 January 1990; and (b) who applied during each successive calendar year since that date. [HL643]
§ Lord Williams of MostynAs at 31 January 1998, there were 51,445 applications for asylum in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, awaiting an initial decision. The available breakdown of these cases, by year of application, is given in the table. I regret that it is not possible to determine, within the statistics, those who are awaiting an initial interview.
It is estimated that around 10,000 of those applications awaiting an initial decision were lodged prior to the introduction of the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993. I regret, however, that a detailed breakdown of these cases, by year of application, is not available.
Asylum applications awaiting an initial decision as at 31 January 1998, by year of application1 Year of application Percentage Pre 1994 20 1994 15 1995 25 1996 15 1997 20 1998 5 Total 51,445 (100%) 1 Estimates rounded to the nearest 5 per cent.