§ Mr. GerrardTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what has been the average time from the lodging of the asylum application to the determination of the appeal for those cases where a determination of an appeal to an adjudicator against an initial asylum decision has been made in each of the last three calendar months; [95884]
(2) what has been the average time from the lodging of the application to the initial decision for those cases where an initial decision has been made on an asylum claim, where the asylum seeker was a single person, in each of the last three calendar months; [95883]
(3) what has been the average time from the lodging of the application to the initial decision for those cases where an initial decision has been made on an asylum claim, where the asylum seeker had dependent children, in each of the last three calendar months; [95886]
(4) what has been the average time from the lodging of the application to the initial decision for those cases where an initial decision has been made on an asylum claim in each of the last three calendar months; and how this average has been calculated. [95885]
§ Mrs. RocheThe available information is given in the table. The figures were calculated by taking the mean length of time between the date that the asylum application was lodged and the date of the initial decision, for asylum decisions taken in July, August and September 1999. The figures relate to asylum applications lodged by 837W principal applicants only. Separate figures for single people and for people with dependent children are not presently available.
Average time to initial decision, in months1,2,3 July, August and September 1999 Month of decision Pre 1993 Act cases Post 1993 Act cases Total July 84 28 48 August 85 28 49 September 88 26 49 July-September 88 27 49 1 Figures are estimates based on cases for which information is recorded 2 Mean average is used 3 Excluding dependants