Select Committee on Home Affairs Written Evidence


46.  Sixth supplementary memorandum submitted by the Home Office

  The Committee has asked a number of further questions on asylum following the evidence session on 19 November where I referred to the fact that 97% of adjudicator determinations in asylum appeals are upheld by the end of the asylum process. The Committee has asked how this figure was calculated and from which figures in the Home Office's published asylum statistics it is derived. This figure is based on the following information. In the 12 months up to the end of September 2003, there were 74,811 adjudicator asylum decisions. In this period, 1090 asylum appeals were allowed by the Immigration Appeal Tribunal (1.4% of total asylum adjudicator decisions) and 995 were allowed at the adjudicator tier having been remitted from the Immigration Appeal Tribunal (1.3% of total asylum adjudicator decisions). In addition, in this period 31 applications for judicial review which were asylum related were successful and three appeals were granted by the Court of Appeal. In total, this means 2.8% of adjudicator determinations in asylum appeals were overturned. These figures are based on asylum appeals for the 12 month period up to the end of September 2003. These are the latest figures to be published in the Home Office quarterly statistics. Some of the figures (for example outcomes of remitted appeals) are not included in the published figures but are based on internal DCA data. The 97% figure relates to categories of case dealt with during the twelve month period rather than a selection of cases seen through from beginning to end.

  The Committee has also asked how the statement in paragraph 27 of Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2002 that 75% of appeals brought by appellants were dismissed fits with figures contain in table 7.2 which show that 2,015 appeals were dismissed and 5,565 appeals were determined. Paragraph 27 of Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2002 states that 75% of appeals at the Tribunal brought by appellants were dismissed. This is based on numbers of appeals brought by appellants which were allowed (410), dismissed (1,880), or withdrawn (210) shown in the lower half of Table 7.2. The 5,565 includes cases brought by the Secretary of State, as well as cases remitted to the IAA for further consideration. The Committee also asks whether the statistics reveal what happened to the 2,700 appeals shown in table 7.2 as having been "remitted to adjudicators for further consideration". Cases remitted to adjudicators for further consideration (2,700 out of a total of 5,565 determinations including cases brought by the Secretary of State) are excluded from the calculation since the outcome of such cases will appear in appeal statistics for subsequent periods.

Beverley Hughes

Minister of State

8 December 2003



 
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