§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will pay compensation to those whose applications to the Immigration and Nationality Department have been delayed by the failure to operate the full casework information technology application and changeover to the new system. [76442]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienWe very much regret the current delays to applications being considered in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. It has always been our practice to consider making ex gratia payments in individual cases where applicants are able to demonstrate, with full supporting evidence, that they have actually and necessarily incurred additional costs.
§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 16 February 1999,Official Report, column 651, what has been the extent of the temporary reduction in service standards and numbers of casework decisions in the Immigration and Nationality Department; and when he expects the full casework information technology application to be operational and the previous throughput of casework to be achieved. [76441]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe temporary reduction in service standards does not apply to all areas in the new Directorate. The Public Caller Unit, for example, has been able to maintain productivity throughout the724W reorganisation, and indeed it is now exceeding previous productivity rates. However, in other areas there has been a fairly significant reduction in service and productivity during the months of January and February, when we were moving offices. Now that much of the move has been made, the position is improving: productivity has been rising and we are mounting special exercises to target priority cases such as work permits. Our aim is to reach the levels of throughput previously achieved within a few weeks.
In recent discussions with my officials, Siemens Business Services have maintained that the revised schedule for introduction of the full Information Technology solution will be achieved. This would mean pilot implementation beginning in the summer with roll-out being completed early next year.
§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the extra time applicants are having to wait for the Immigration and Nationality Department to resolve their cases as a result of the failure to operate the full casework information technology application. [76443]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe disruption caused by the reorganisation of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) has meant some temporary delay in the processing of cases, particularly during the months of January and February. The position is improving: productivity has been rising and we are mounting special exercises to target priority cases. In the majority of straight forward cases, the delay is now a matter of weeks only. The expectation is that the situation will continue to improve.
We do, however, recognise that there is a large backlog of IND cases, the great majority preceding the reorganisation. There are, for example, currently 104,356 cases in IND' s central Work in Progress Store, many of which are over five years old. Our plans for dealing with this backlog are set out in the Government's White Paper "Fairer, Faster and Firmer—A Modern Approach to Immigration and Asylum".