§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) for how many weeks the dedicated team in IND dealing with the backlog of general and settlement casework has been operating; and how many cases have been determined in each of these weeks; [115404]
(2) how many staff have been allocated to the dedicated team tackling the backlog of general and settlement casework within IND. [115405]
§ Mrs. RocheA dedicated team, The After-Entry Clearance Team (AECT), was set up in April 1999 specifically to tackle the backlog of general and settlement casework and consists of 12 staff. The available information on output is set out in the table which shows that since they were established they have completed over 17,650 cases.
Monthly output of AECT 1999–2000 Month Output 1999 April 541 May 1,996 June 1,662 July 1,526 August 1,459 September 2,198 October 1,841 November 1,784 December 1,404 2000 January 1,722 February 1,523
§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases are currently in the backlog of general and settlement casework; and what is the target date for clearing them. [115380]
§ Mrs. RocheThe backlog of general and settlement cases, which are in the Case Allocation Unit and the Work in Progress store awaiting action by caseworkers, is currently 29,000. We aim to clear this to fractional levels by the summer.