§ Mr. DarlingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his estimate of the number of letters received but not opened at Lunar house on 21 November.
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§ Mr. RentonOn 21 November, the approximate total number of unopened items of mail and those opened for the extraction of fees but not acknowledged was 591. All mail received in the post room is now being opened and acknowledged within 24 hours.
§ Mr. DarlingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will indicate the date of receipt of applications for the citizenship being dealt with by Lunar house on 21 November.
§ Mr. RentonInformation is not available in the form requested. The average time since the date of application for cases completed by the nationality division (including the Liverpool nationality office) during October 1988 was 13 months for registration and 21 months for naturalisations.
§ Mr. DarlingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for(a) citizenship and (b) variations of leave have been received; and how many applications have been (i) granted and (ii) not granted in each case, in each of the last two years.
§ Mr. RentonInformation on applications for citizenship and variation of limited leave to stay and how they are dealt with is published in the annual report "Immigration, Nationality and Passports". Information on applications made, and decisions taken, in 1986 and 1987 for these two types of cases is given in the following two tables:
(a) British citizenship 1986 1987 Number of applications received in caseworking groups 57,480 180,020 Number of grants of British citizenship2 45,870 64,880 Number of applications not granted 4,900 5,690 Notes:
1 This figure does not include some 210,000 applications which had been received by the end of 1987 but had not then been sorted and prepared for consideration.
2 These figures for grants of British citizenship were published in Home Office statistical bulletin "Citizenship Statistics, United Kingdom 1987" (Issue 12/88).
(b) Variations of limited leave to stay in the United Kingdom, excluding EC nationals3 1986 1987 Number of applications received (by post or in Public Enquiry Offices) 261,280 230,470 Number of grants of extensions of stay or settlement 214,270 197,510 Number of refusals of extension or settlement 9,280 9,130 Note:
3 This table does not include figures for applications which were withdrawn, or which for other reasons did not require a decision.