§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when she expects her Department to achieve its PSA target of reducing asylum appeal decision times to four months or less. [159033]
§ Jane KennedyThe Lord Chancellor's Department does not have a PSA to reduce asylum appeals, but does have an asylum Service Delivery Agreement which makes up part of a wider PSA. The relevant target, which refers to the year 2002–03, is for 65 per cent. of all cases to be cleared through both tiers of the Immigration Appellate Authorities within four months.
To acknowledge the importance of this target, and the significant progress already made, the Court Service has agreed a key performance indicator, in the same terms, for the 2001–02 year. Therefore we expect that level of performance over the year to be achieved by 31 March 2002. Accordingly, we expect the SDA target to be achieved by 31 March 2003.