§ Dr. Evan HarrisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the average time it will take to determine applications for leave to remain in the UK on the basis of marriage for non-fast track cases for applications made in October; and what the average time taken was in each of the last five years. [83772]
§ Beverley HughesAt present those marriage applications that cannot be dealt with on initial consideration can take approximately 12 months to decide. It is not possible to provide waiting times over the last five years, as records have not been kept. There have been exceptionally high numbers of applications throughout 2001 and continuing this year.
Efforts are being made to reduce the 12 months taken to decide all applications (including marriage cases) and we are confident that the delays will be reduced to nine months in the New Year. This will be achieved by making use of additional resources in Sheffield where we have trained up to 40 caseworkers to decide marriage applications.