§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their forecast of the effects of the operation of the Asylum and Immigration Bill 1996 in reducing the time between applications for asylum and final decisions on those applications.
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)It is not possible to forecast the likely impact of this legislation on asylum intake, and hence on decision times, since these are also affected by many external factors. But the Government's policy includes a range of measures designed to improve throughout at both the initial decision and the appeal stages.