HC Deb 29 November 2000 vol 357 cc677-9W
Mr. Gerrard

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers have made applications since the coming into force of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; on how many of these applications an initial decision has been made; what the average time was for such asylum seekers from application to decision in cases where they have dependent children; and how many such cases(a) have been determined and (b) remain to be determined. [140465]

Mrs. Roche

37,095 asylum seekers made applications between 1 April 2000, when major provisions of the 1999 Act came into force, and 30 September 2000. Information on the number of those applications on which an initial decision has been taken is not available.

The information available shows that over the same period, 2,890 family applications had been made and, of those applications, 2,255 have received an initial decision while the remainder, 635, have not.

Most new substantive family applications lodged between 1 April 2000 and 30 September 2000, had an initial decision within two months.

Mr. Gerrard

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for those asylum seekers in respect of whose applications an initial decision has been made during(a) 1999 and (b) 2000, what the average time was between the application and the decision. [140417]

Mrs. Roche

Average decision times for initial decisions were calculated until the end of 1999. During 1999 the average time taken to reach an initial decision was 35 months. By December 1999 the average time taken to reach an initial decision had fallen to 13 months.

The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) is setting in place new systems, which will enable average decision times to be calculated and to report the percentage of applications receiving an initial decision within two months.

Mr. Gerrard

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers who made an application before the end of 1995 have not yet had an initial decision on their application. [141416]

Mrs. Roche

The monitoring systems we have in place record no more applications made before 1996 where there has been no initial decision.