§ Mr. CrausbyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the cost was in each of the last five years of the administration of the Immigration Appellate System. [147783]
§ Mr. LammyThe costs of the administration of the Immigration Appellate system in each of the last five years are as follows:
£ million 1998–99 167.3 1999–2000 177.5 2000–01 116.8 2001–02 181.1 2002–03 269.8 1 The costs of administration of the Immigration Appellate System for these years are estimates. Detailed financial reporting information was not available to capture the full cost of administering the process. These figures include the cost of administering the Immigration Appellate Authority, the Legal Services Commission, provision of legal aid and the Department for Constitutional Affairs Asylum Policy and Programme Division.
The rising costs reflect a significantly increased caseload (reflecting the clearance of the backlog of cases) and the Government priority that has been given to fast and effective processing of asylum claims—in order to ensure the end to end system is as cost effective as possible.