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The New Asylum Model: Swifter Decisions - Faster Removals

18 January 2006

Greater numbers of successful asylum seekers will benefit from swifter decision-making while those with unsuccessful claims will be removed more quickly under the expansion of the Government’s new asylum decision making processes, the Home Office announced today.

The New Asylum Model, a key part of the Government's five year strategy for asylum and immigration, aims to speed up the asylum process and build on the significant progress the Government has already made in reducing applications and increasing removals. The new process seeks to deliver faster outcomes and manage cases to their conclusion in a quicker timeframe.

Asylum applications are already down 72 per cent from their peak in 2002, with 80 per cent of initial asylum claims now decided in two months, and the removal of failed asylum seekers rose by 12 per cent to 3,460 in the third quarter of 2005, compared with the previous quarter.

From April this year, new teams of case owners will be established in Solihull and Leeds to process existing and new asylum claims in the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside respectively. By putting the case owners closer to the claimants, the Government believes it will be able to manage both the case and the claimant more effectively in the shortest possible time with a dedicated person taking responsibility for each claim from beginning to end.

Further expansion of the scheme is still being explored, but the Government intends that by December 2006 all new cases will be dealt with under the new model. The aim is to ensure genuine refugees have their claims settled quickly and accurately and are then granted leave to remain in the UK, while those whose claims  fail are quickly removed.

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said:

"The considerable improvements we have already made to the asylum process have allowed us to look at how we can further build on these successes.

"The new system aims to deliver a more efficient and effective system - ensuring those with well founded claims are integrated faster, while quickly removing those who are unsuccessful. It is better for all concerned that claimants know sooner rather than later whether they will be granted the right to remain in the UK.

"Tighter case management, shortened processes and faster removals will also send out a clear signal that there is no place in the UK for those who seek to abuse our hospitality."

Under the new model asylum claimants will be put through a process tailored to the characteristics of their claim, with a specialist case owner responsible for managing the claimants and their cases right through to integration or removal. The case owner is the direct point of contact for the claimant, their legal representative and the courts. By ensuring asylum seekers are moved through the process more quickly it should also help reduce National Asylum Support Service (NASS) support costs.

At their initial interview, claimants will be assigned to one of a number of routes based on the characteristics of their claim. This will then determine the way in which the claim is dealt with, including the speed of the process and how often the claimant is required to report. In some instances it will be appropriate to detain the claimant but where the individual is not detained the Government have put in place tighter reporting arrangements, with some applicants required to report on a daily basis.

The extension of the scheme the West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside will not result in any change to the number of asylum seekers being housed in the two regions and the Government expects that the role of the case owner as the single point of contact for the case will be helpful to legal representatives, local authorities, the voluntary sector and other external stakeholders.

Notes to Editors:

1. Controlling our borders: making migration work for Britain, the Government's five year strategy for asylum and immigration was published on 7 February 2005 (Home Office press notice 028/05).
2. The New Asylum Model was announced in February 2005 and built on the success of existing fast track processes at Harmondsworth immigration detention centre.
3. A detained female fast track process was introduced at Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre in May 2005 and the model was further extended in June 2005 with the establishment of non-detained processes in Liverpool and Croydon, handling asylum seekers whose claims were regarded as late or opportunistic.

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