§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the backlog of cases is in each division at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate; and what the waiting time is for naturalisation, from application to determination. [13632]
§ Angela EagleStatistics on the number of cases awaiting an initial decision in each division of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate are not currently available, with the exception of asylum applications, as these are subject to rigorous quality checks. The result of a physical count on 31 August 2001 showed that there were 43,100 asylum cases awaiting an initial decision.
782WInformation on the average waiting time for naturalisations are not routinely published. The most recent published information relates to March 2001, when the average waiting time was 11.6 months.
One of the Government's Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets is to reduce the average time taken to grant citizenship (naturalisations and registrations) to six months by the end of 2001–02. It is expected that performance on this target will be reported on in due course after the end of this financial year.