§ 28. Mr. GapesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers have been waiting more than five years for a decision on their status; and what plans he has to recruit extra staff to deal with the backlog of cases. [19809]
§ Mr. KirkhopeAbout 4,460 applications for asylum made before 1992 are currently awaiting a decision. New arrangements for tackling the backlog of asylum applications made before the Asylum and Immigration Act 1993 are to be introduced in April, with the aim of producing a higher rate of decisions within the staff resources already allocated to this block of work. Generally, the number of asylum caseworkers has increased more than sevenfold since 1988 and the number of undecided asylum applications has fallen from 69,763 in January 1996 to 54,490 at the end of January 1997.
§ Mr. John MarshallTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers there were from(a) Poland, (b) the Czech Republic, (c) Hungary, (d) Romania and (e) Malta during each of the past four years. [21052]
§ Mr. KirkhopeThe requested information is given in the table.
836W
Applications1 received for asylum in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, selected nationalities, 1993 to 1996 Principal applicants 1993 1994 1995 19962 Hungary 5 5 5 5 Malta * — — — Poland 155 360 1,210 890 Romania 370 355 770 445 Former Czechoslovakia of which: 15 35 65 110 Czech Republic n/a n/a n/a 55 Slovakia n/a n/a n/a 55 1 Figures rounded to 5 with * = to 1 or 2 while n/a = not available. 2 Provisional figures.