§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current cost of maintaining an asylum seeker, whose court case is under review, for one month; what is the current average time for reviewing asylum claims from the moment of first claim to final resolution; and if he will make a statement. [128237]
§ Mrs. RocheThe available information is that in 1999–2000 the total cost of supporting asylum seekers was £590 million.
Information on the average decision time from initial claim to final resolution and on the cost of supporting an asylum seeker for one month is not currently available.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of the decision process was for each category of asylum seeker in the last 12 months. [128565]
§ Mrs. RocheInformation on the average decision time from initial claim to final resolution for each category of asylum seeker is not currently available.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what restrictions apply to asylum seekers undertaking voluntary activity; what plans he has to review these restrictions; and if he will make a statement. [128567]
§ Mrs. RocheThere are no restrictions on asylum seekers participating in genuine voluntary work. Difficulties may arise however where a person seeks to perform voluntary work but where there is some form of remuneration such as "expenses" or remuneration in kind. It is then much more difficult to determine whether the work is genuinely voluntary or whether there is an element of employment involved.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of his Department's staff have been involved in asylum casework in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [128566]
§ Mrs. RocheThe Department does not hold records prior to 1996 and for later years the information does not exist in the form requested. The only readily available information, set out in the table, is for the numbers of staff employed in the Asylum Directorate between 1996 and 1998.
As at 1 April Number of staff 1996 1782.4 1997 1689.0 1998 1524.4 1999 Not readily available 2000 702 1Full-time equivalents The numbers for 1996 to 1998 include those who support and manage the staff who make the decisions, as well as the decision makers. Comparisons between 1996 167W to 1998 figures and those for 1999 and 2000 are difficult because of the reorganisation of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in December 1998. Asylum applications were previously handled in a dedicated asylum directorate. In 1999 they were dealt with in integrated teams which also dealt with a variety of other immigration issues, and thus a separate figure is not available. Currently, asylum applications are dealt with in dedicated teams.