By Vivienne Russell | 22 July 2014
The Home Office’s decision to take the UK Border Agency back in-house has led to improvements, although progress in clearing backlogs is variable, auditors said today.
UKBA was abolished and split into two Home Office directorates – UK Visa and Immigration and Immigration Enforcement – in March 2013 following concerns over its performance.
A National Audit Office review of the changes found new service standards introduced by UK Visas and Immigration had given customers greater transparency regarding the time taken to complete visa applications.
The Home Office had also prioritised clearing case backlogs and made additional resources available to do so. Despite this, progress was variable. All straightforward cases in temporary and permanent migration had been cleared, but as of March 2014, there were still 301,00 open cases, including 25,000 claims for asylum.
Auditors warned there was a risk that cases on hold are not dealt with in a reasonable time, including asylum cases waiting a decision and the ‘migration refusal pool’ where the department does not know if people refused leave to remain have left the country.
Poor IT, issues were data quality and low staff morale continue to be problems, the NAO added.
‘The Home Office has started making significant changes since the agency was broken up and has made progress in some areas,’ said NAO head Amyas Morse.
‘We would have expected greater progress by now though in tackling the problems we identified in 2012 in areas such as specific backlogs and IT.
‘Among our recommendations is that the department prioritise outstanding backlogs and act to prevent the cases that it classifies as unworkable building up into backlogs.’
