§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Answer by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 18 February, whether they can estimate the proportion of asylum seekers whose applications are susceptible to influence by government policy. [HL1738]
§ Lord FilkinGovernment policy is aimed at ensuring we have a firm, fair, fast and effective system, which of course affects all asylum applicants, by dealing with those with genuine claims effectively and efficiently, while also deterring those who seek to abuse the system. We also help a number of those needing humanitarian assistance via specific schemes (e.g. Kosovans assisted under the HEP programme).
Current policy initiatives, such as juxtaposed controls in France and the deployment of detection technology at continental ports, are designed to prevent those who seek to circumvent our controls at specific ports of entry from doing so. The Government are confident that by September 2003 this will reduce significantly new asylum claims by around half compared with the number last October.