§ Mr. MaddenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average length of time taken to process applications for(a) registration and (b) naturalisation; and how long those applying in both of those categories in December 1987 may expect to wait.
§ Mr. RentonThe average time taken to complete applications for citizenship granted in June 1988 was 11 months for registration and 18 months for naturalisation.
Good progress continues to be made in reducing delays since the measures which I announced on 19 April in reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Derby, North (Mr. Knight) at column 410.
All citizenship applications received before 31 December 1987 were acknowledged and passports and other documents returned to applicants by the end of April 1988. All immigration correspondence is now opened on the day of receipt and all nationality applications within a few days.
At the end of March the Department had some 268,000 outstanding citizenship applications including over 80,000 naturalisation applications and over 187,000 for registration as British citizens. Since the end of March, nearly 20,000 cases have been completed.
Our progress will accelerate when we open our new nationality office in India buildings, Liverpool where the local passport office is also situated; 130 staff are being recruited to man the office, which is due to open, after staff training, on 5 September. By about the end of the year, this will increase our nationality caseworking staff by over 80 per cent. and initially the whole of this additional capacity will be devoted to processing registration applications.
A substantial proportion of the applications for registration will be decided by April 1989 and the remainder during the following year.
638W
§ Mr. MaddenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his best estimate as to how many applications for(a) adult registration with entitlement, (b) naturalisation and (c) registration of minors his Department (i) will receive and (ii) expects to grant, in 1988–89.
§ Mr. RentonOur rough estimate, which is subject to error, is that in financial year 1988–89 we will receive the following applications:
Number Registration of adults 3,000 Registration of minors 12,000 Naturalisation 31,000 We estimate that in the financial year 1988–89 we will grant 60,000 registrations of all kinds, and 33,000 naturalisations. Full output from the Liverpool nationality office will be achieved towards the end of 1988. Its main effects will be felt in 1989–90, when we hope it will grant registration applications in excess of 7,000 each month.