HL Deb 03 September 1998 vol 593 cc14-5WA
Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How long they anticipate that it will take, following the guidance given in their White Paper, Fairer, Faster and Firmer—a Modern Approach to Immigration and Asylum, to clear the backlog of the 10,000 individuals seeking asylum who made application prior to 1 July 1993 and have not yet received a response. [HL3218]

Lord Williams of Mostyn

As indicated in the White Paper,Fairer, Faster and Firmer—a Modern Approach to Immigration and Asylum, we are aiming to clear all the backlog of undecided asylum claims before April 2001 so as to achieve our target, on current forecasts of asylum claims, of decision times of two months or less by that date. We will start by clearing the undecided cases which date from before 1 July 1993, and hope to be able to decide most of these by early 1999.