§ Mr. VazTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will make a statement on the backlog of immigration cases in the IAA; what the backlog is of cases waiting for decision by an immigration adjudicator; and what the average length of time was for a case to be dealt with from receipt from the Home Office to the hearing in the last 12 months. [54500]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe 1AA, as of the end of March 2002, was dealing with 4,114 adjudicator appeals, 36 leave to appeal applications and 39 substantive tribunal appeals in relation to immigration cases (not including family visit visas). In each instance, this level of work in progress is within or in line with expectation and hence does not amount to a backlog.
The average waiting time from receipt of an immigration case to its first substantive hearing for the period 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002 is 13.75 weeks.