§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for naturalisation were received in each of the past 24 months; what was the number of staff dealing with such applications during each of those months; and how many naturalisation cases were decided in each of those months.
§ Mr. RaisonThe figures are as follows:
Number of naturalisation applications received Number of naturalisation applications decided Number of staff dealing with naturalisation ✶ applications 1979 February 408 148 32 March 446 427 32 April 453 178 35 May 497 149 36 June 474 176 36 July 460 343 36 August 462 180 40 September 592 169 40 October 548 264 42 November 629 148 41 December 435 307 41 1980 January 629 536 43 February 612 616 43 March 666 656 42 April 612 556 42 May 504 372 52 June 569 871 52 July 644 810 52 August 453 607 52 September 600 614 52 October 629 487 52 November 63 599 51 December 552 490 51 1981 January 962 682 51 ✶ A comparatively small proportion of the staff of the nationality division spend their time wholly on naturalisation work. The totals shown 66W include all staff who spend a substantial part of their time examining and processing naturalisation applications. The increase between April and May 1980 is a consequence of the partial integration of naturalisation and registration work, which enabled more staff to devote part of their time to naturalisation cases.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many naturalisation applicants in each of the last 10 years opted to take the language test in Welsh.
§ Mr. RaisonParagraph 1(d) of the second schedule to the British Nationality Act 1948 requires an applicant for naturalisation to have sufficient knowledge of the English language. An applicant for naturalisation cannot therefore opt to show knowledge of Welsh. An applicant for registration under section 5A(2) of the 1948 Act can do so, but no records are kept of the number who do.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of naturalisation applications has been granted for each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. RaisonThe available figures are as follows:
Naturalisation applications granted as a percentage of applications on which action was completed 1974 80 1975 81 1976 77 1977 81 1978 81 1979✶ 68 1980 76 ✶ The comparatively low percentage in 1979 is thought to be due to the fact that a lower proportion of cases were completed in that year and were dealt with at the preliminary stage of consideration; an applicant may be found to be ineligible at the preliminary stage but an application cannot be granted then because the full inquiries will not have taken place.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary for the Home Department what are the average, shortest and longest times taken for the processing of naturalisation applications for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. RaisonInformation about the shortest and longest times taken for the processing of naturalisation applications is not available.
The average time taken to deal with such applications was as follows:
Year Average time 1976 18 months 1977 19 months 1978 21 months 1979 25 months 1980 25 months The increased delay in processing applications has been due to the substantial rise in the number of applications received and the need for restraint in public expenditure on staffing.
§ Mr. Tilleyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many naturalisation applications have been refused in each of the last 10 years because the applicant failed (a) the good character and (b) the language test; and how many other refusals there were and for what reasons.
§ Mr. RaisonThe figures are as follows:
67W
1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 Number of naturalisation applications refused 377 523 498 536 477 450 343 222 556 1,119 Reasons for refusal*: (a) Failure to meet requirements as to character (criminal record, bankruptcy, insolvency, dubious business or other record, deception etc. 140 186 149 102 68 126 81 57 130 249 (b) Failure to meet language requirements 42 61 40 56 51 49 43 31 114 190 (c) Failure to meet statutory residential requirements etc. 184 227 239 343 277 191 136 83 217 481 (d) Failure to meet requirements as to future residential intentions 35 72 69 28 75 112 88 45 109 264 (e) Other reasons 1 35 16 7 6 11 9 14 8 15 * An application may be refused for more than one reason, The number of applicants refused in any one year will therefore not necessarily agree with the total of reasons for that year.