§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many asylum and immigration appeals were adjourned in (i) 1996 and (ii) 1997; and what proportion of these adjournments were a consequence of(a) an application by the appellant, (b) an application by his Department and (c) other reasons. [51608]
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§ Mr. HoonThe Immigration Appellate Authority does not retain accurate historical information on the volume, proportion or breakdown of asylum and immigration appeals that are adjourned.
§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) what international comparisons his Department has made of the availability of legal aid for representation at(a) asylum appeal hearings and (b) non-asylum immigration appeal hearings; [51614]
(2) what international comparisons he has made on the availability of legal aid for representation at asylum appeal hearings. [51610]
§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many further appeals to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal against a refusal of asylum were awaiting a hearing on(a) 31 December 1996, (b) 31 December 1997 and (c) 30 June 1998. [51602]
§ Mr. HoonThe number of outstanding applications/appeals before the Immigration Appeal Tribunal were:
Applications Appeals (a) 31 December 1996 1350 1250 (b) 31 December 1997 1,125 1,018 (c) 30 June 1998 1,576 1,316 1Estimated figures as historical data for this period are not accurate The number of outstanding appeals before the Immigration Appeal Adjudicators were:
- (a) 31 December 1996: 20,104
- (b) 31 December 1997: 22,484
- (c) 30 June 1998: 20,869.
§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proportion of(a) asylum and (b) immigration appeals were determined on the basis of the papers only in (a) 1997 and (b) 1998 to date. [51607]
§ Mr. HoonThe Immigration Appellate Authority does not differentiate between, or keep accurate records of, appeals that are dealt with and disposed of in court, against those that are dealt with on the basis of the papers.
§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to increase the number of(a) adjudicators and (b) special adjudicators employed by the Immigration Appeals Authority during the financial year (i) 1998–99 and (ii) 1999–2000. [51615]
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§ Mr. HoonThere is a rolling programme of recruitment to increase the number of adjudicators and special adjudicators. This will continue at least into the year 2000.
§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what projections have been made of the number of(a) asylum and (b) immigration appeals to be heard and determined by the Immigration Appeals Authority in (i) 1998, (ii) 1999, (iii) 2000, (iv) the financial year 1998–99 and (v) the financial year 1999–2000. [51616]
§ Mr. HoonIt is projected that there will be 38,455 cases disposed of by the Immigration Adjudicators in 1998 of which 25,865 will relate to asylum. During the same year a further 16,628 cases will be disposed of by the Immigration Appeal Tribunal of which 12,191 will relate to asylum. The comparable figures for 1998–99 are 38,910 Adjudicator disposals of which 27,142 will be asylum and 17,357 Tribunal disposals of which 13,084 will be asylum.
There are no reliable projection figures of the number of appeals which will be dealt with after April 1999, but as a result of the comprehensive spending review significant extra resources will be made available to the Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA) over the period 1999–2003, enabling it to increase the number of appeals disposed of substantially.