§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the backlog of(a) immigration and asylum cases and (b) nationality cases in the Integrated Casework Directorate of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in each month since 30 June. [94972]
§ Mrs. RocheThe backlog of immigration and asylum cases, and, separately, nationality cases at the end of July, August and September is set out:
Immigration and asylum Month Number of cases July 104,464 August 123,454 September 149,013
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Nationality Month Number of cases July 97,900 August 99,500 September 97,900 We have recruited 340 staff and are planning to recruit another 250 to fill vacancies and expand the Integrated Casework Directorate in order to keep pace with the intake of new cases and eliminate backlogs.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the average daily number(a) of telephone callers to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, (b) of calls made to that directorate and (c) of calls answered by the Telephone Caller Unit, in (i) July, (ii) August and (iii) September. [94965]
§ Mrs. RocheThe figures relating to telephone calls to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate are provided each month by British Telecom and are actuals rather than estimates. Daily averages, by month, are set out in the table:
Number of callers Number of calls Calls answered July 4,307 51,925 1,795 August 4,133 53,352 1,867 September 4,741 37,503 3,668 Since July a number of measures have been introduced to improve the service offered by the Immigration and Nationality Enquiry Bureau (INEB). Significant numbers of new staff are now available to answer calls, a support team undertakes follow-up work generated by calls, and there have been improvements in training staff in call handling techniques and the mentoring of new and existing staff. In recent weeks the service provided by INEB has improved substantially with around 4,000 calls a day being answered (75 per cent. of incoming calls). Further changes are being considered to improve performance.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases are now held in the Central Work in Progress Store of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate; and how many of those cases have been outstanding for more than(a) six months, (b) one year and (c) two years. [94968]
§ Mrs. RocheThere are 83,796 cases held in the Work in Progress Store of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. This is a reduction of over 26,000 cases since July. Of the cases held in the Work in Progress Store, 12,654 have been outstanding for more than six months, 32,206 have been outstanding for more than one year, and 38,936 have been outstanding for more than two years. A number of measures have been taken to tackle the backlog, including the creation of the After Entry Clearance Team, which has had a major impact on the backlog of the after entry case backlog.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average daily number of personal callers to each public inquiry office of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in each month since 30 June. [94963]
§ Mrs. RocheThe average daily number of callers to each public inquiry office in July, August and September is set out in the table:
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July August September Public Caller Unit Croydon 887 882 903 Asylum Screening Unit Croydon 248 309 327 Midlands Public Enquiry Office 141 133 190 Liverpool Public Enquiry Office 60 46 51 Glasgow Public Enquiry Office 51 52 55 Belfast Public Enquiry Office 33 30 26
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of letters to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate from(a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public are currently replied to within the target times set by Ministers. [94969]
§ Mrs. RocheThe Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) defines and monitors public correspondence as set out in the Six Whitehall Standards. The Standards specifically exclude applications and casework related correspondence, that is the majority of correspondence received in IND.
The latest position is that 12 per cent. of letters from hon. Members and 89 per cent. of letters from members of the public to which the Standard applies, met it.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current backlog of cases at the Liverpool Office of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate; and how many of these cases have been outstanding for over(a) six months, (b) 12 months and (c) two years. [94966]
§ Mrs. RocheAt 30 September 1999, the current estimated backlog of cases in the Liverpool Office stands at 97,900. 72,500 cases have been outstanding for six months; 46,900 have been outstanding for 12 months and 3,500 for two years.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the earliest date of unopened travel documents applications held by the Travel Documents Case Management Unit of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. [94970]
§ Mrs. RocheThe earliest date is 28 July 1999.
In the past few months, the number of staff allocated to travel documents work has doubled and is set to increase still further in the next few weeks. This combined with streamlined working practices, has resulted in dramatic increases in output from averages of 120 per week during August to well over 700 last week.
In addition, all applications received since 6 September have been opened within 24 hours of arrival in the section, and the majority processed within a matter of days.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average waiting time for nationality cases in(a) July, (b) August and (c) September. [94964]
§ Mrs. RocheThe average waiting time for nationality cases in July, August and September are listed in the table:
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Months Month Naturalisation Registration Overall (a) July 1999 20.3 5.0 17.6 (b) August 1999 20.3 7.2 18.5 (c) September 1999 20.6 8.4 19.1
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his plans now are for the implementation of the integrated information technology system in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. [949711
§ Mrs. RocheAs was made clear in reply to the hon. Member's Question on 26 July 1999,Official Report, column 63, from the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien), the system is currently being tested and that process is not expected to be completed before December. Plans for implementation will be prepared in the light of the information obtained during testing as to the business benefits conferred by the different components of the system.