§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers whose application for asylum has been refused have been moved from their settled address to another area while their appeal is dealt with since the setting-up of NASS. [1124]
§ Angela EagleThis information is not recorded centrally and could be obtained only through examination of individual case records.
As a matter of policy and practice, the national asylum support service (NASS) will move an asylum seeker it is supporting from their settled address only if the asylum seeker has requested it or there are exceptional circumstances which necessitate moving the asylum seeker.
Asylum seekers transferring to support from NASS because they have received a negative decision on their application or because they have reached the age of 18 will normally be moved from their current accommodation into NASS accommodation unless there are overriding reasons for supporting them in their existing accommodation.
§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects the asylum support stakeholder group to meet; and if he will make a statement about its role. [1123]
§ Angela EagleThe aim of the group as originally constituted was to act as a consultative forum at the time the asylum support scheme to be administered by the national asylum support service (NASS) was being set up. The asylum support stakeholder group has not met since NASS went live on 3 April 2000.
Currently, responsibility for formation of stakeholder groups rests with individual local authority regional consortiums responsible for asylum support issues.
Plans are being made to establish a new national forum on asylum support for consulting with interested parties.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum applications have been(a) rejected and (b) rejected as a result of being incorrectly completed in each year since 1995. [1469]
§ Angela EagleInformation on the number of initial decisions to refuse refugee status from 1995 to 2000 is given in the table. Data on the number of refusals resulting from incorrectly completed applications are unavailable. However, such cases fall into the category of noncompliance, covering, for example, failure to provide further evidence as required, failure to respond to invitations to interview and failure to complete a statement of evidence form correctly or within the time allowed. Data on non-compliance are included in the table.
My hon. Friend may also be interested to know that in May 2001 79 per cent. of initial decisions were upheld on appeal.
100W
Applications for asylum in the UK refused refugee status from 1995 to 2000 Refusals1 Year Total Non-compliance 1995 21,300 2,085 1996 31,670 2,015 1997 28,945 3,615 1998 22,315 2,995 19992 11,025 1,085 20002 76,850 26,630 1 All data have been rounded to the nearest five 2 Data for 1999 and 2000 are provisional, and exclude decisions made under backlog criteria
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if it remains his policy to end the use of prisons to hold asylum seekers by October. [1466]
§ Angela EagleThe Government remain committed to their long-term strategy of reducing the use of prison accommodation to hold immigration detainees. However, even in the long term, for reasons of geography, security and control, there will continue to be a need to hold some detainees in prisons. The use of the dedicated detention facilities managed by the Prison Service at Haslar, Rochester and Lindholme does not at present have a set duration. The temporary use of 500 additional places made available by the Prison Service in a number of local prisons is being reviewed and the timing of the withdrawal of immigration detainees from these prisons is the subject of discussions with the Prison Service.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the percentage of substantive family applications which received an initial decision within two months in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement; [1599]
(2) what was the average time taken for an initial decision to be made on asylum applications by single applicants without dependants in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [1598]
§ Angela EagleInformation regarding the average time taken to make an initial decision is not available for the whole of 2000.
Nearly two thirds (63 per cent.) of new substantive family applications lodged in the period of 1 April 2000 to 31 December 2000 had an initial decision within two months.
The average time taken for an initial decision to be made on asylum applications by applicants without dependants for decisions made in the period of October to December 2000, was 14 months.
Information on the average time taken to make an initial decision, separately identified for family and single applicants is not available for 1998 and 1999.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of asylum applications included dependants in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [1597]
§ Angela EagleThe information is given in the table. This information for 1998 and 1999 is published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletins "Asylum Statistics", 101W copies of which are available in the Library and on the Department's website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigrationl.html.
Estimated proportion of applications which include dependants1 Percentage 1998 13 1999 220 2000 210 1 Percentages are based on the cases for which the information is recorded 2 Provisional figures