§ Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in(a) January 1998, (b) July 1998, (c) January 1999 and (d) July 1999 were engaged (i) wholly and (ii) partly in making (x) asylum and (y) immigration decisions. [96027]
§ Mrs. RocheInformation is not available in the form requested. Prior to the formation of the Integrated Casework Directorate (ICD) in December 1998, asylum decisions were made by staff working in the Asylum Directorate, and immigration casework decisions by the After Entry and Appeals Directorate (AEAD) and some staff in the Immigration Service Enforcement Directorate (ISED). The total number of staff in the Asylum Directorate in January 1998 was 659 and in July 1998 was 530, and in the AEAD for the same months was 623 and 569 respectively. These totals include management and support grades. Over and above these figures, there were a number of caseworkers in the ISED making decision in deportation and illegal entry cases.
Since the creation of the ICD, casework is dealt with by multi-skilled teams which deal with both asylum and immigration casework. Figures on the breakdown of staff dealing with differing types of case are not kept centrally. The total number of staff in the ICD in January 1999 was 424 and in July 1999 was 1,452.
Despite the lack of detailed figures, it has become clear that the number of trained asylum caseworkers now in the ICD is significantly lower than was available in January and July 1998. This has been a function of declining staffing levels in anticipation of efficiencies from the new caseworking system which did not in fact materialise. We are therefore recruiting around 250 caseworkers specifically to process asylum cases and training a greater proportion of our existing caseworkers in asylum skills.