By David Williams and Jaimie Kaffash
4 March 2010
The UK Border Agency is capable of meeting government targets for processing asylum applications, its chief executive has insisted.
Lin Homer was quizzed by the Commons home affairs select committee this week, after an independent inspector suggested that the target – to process 90% of applications within six months by December 2011 – was ‘unachievable’.
In a report published on February 26, UKBA inspector John Vine warned the target could not be met ‘with current staffing levels’. He said that in November 2009, only 45% of applications were concluded inside six months.
But Homer told MPs that UKBA’s system for dealing with asylum cases was ‘world-beating’.
‘I don’t believe anyone else in the world is even setting themselves a target,’ she told the committee on March 2.
Vine’s report also called on the agency to explain how it was going to clear a backlog of 215,000 older unprocessed applications before a July 2011 deadline.
Since 2007, 235,000 unresolved cases had been dealt with. However, committee member Janet Dean asked Homer why the agency appeared to be slipping behind, with only 15,000 being completed in the past three months, compared with 22,500 in the previous quarter.
Homer put the lag down to a recent staff restructure. ‘It’s in the nature of reorganisation that it slows you down before it speeds you up… we believe we will start to see an uplift very quickly,’ she said.
Homer added that, following a National Audit Office recommendation to tackle the most costly cases first, the agency was now dealing with the more complex, time-consuming applications.
The Public and Commercial Services union said the UKBA workforce was struggling to meet its targets, with morale at ‘rock bottom’.
Paul O’Connor, national officer for the UKBA, told Public Finance that clearing the backlog while improving performance would be ‘unachievable with even double the resources’. He called for an increase in staffing levels.
Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, agreed that the targets should be revised. She said: ‘It is in everyone’s interests that asylum cases are concluded quickly and fairly. However, it is one thing to have targets, it is another to make them so unrealistic that not only are they not met but they result in the wrong decision and an often lengthy appeals process.’
4 March 2010
The UK Border Agency is capable of meeting government targets for processing asylum applications, its chief executive has insisted.
Lin Homer was quizzed by the Commons home affairs select committee this week, after an independent inspector suggested that the target – to process 90% of applications within six months by December 2011 – was ‘unachievable’.
In a report published on February 26, UKBA inspector John Vine warned the target could not be met ‘with current staffing levels’. He said that in November 2009, only 45% of applications were concluded inside six months.
But Homer told MPs that UKBA’s system for dealing with asylum cases was ‘world-beating’.
‘I don’t believe anyone else in the world is even setting themselves a target,’ she told the committee on March 2.
Vine’s report also called on the agency to explain how it was going to clear a backlog of 215,000 older unprocessed applications before a July 2011 deadline.
Since 2007, 235,000 unresolved cases had been dealt with. However, committee member Janet Dean asked Homer why the agency appeared to be slipping behind, with only 15,000 being completed in the past three months, compared with 22,500 in the previous quarter.
Homer put the lag down to a recent staff restructure. ‘It’s in the nature of reorganisation that it slows you down before it speeds you up… we believe we will start to see an uplift very quickly,’ she said.
Homer added that, following a National Audit Office recommendation to tackle the most costly cases first, the agency was now dealing with the more complex, time-consuming applications.
The Public and Commercial Services union said the UKBA workforce was struggling to meet its targets, with morale at ‘rock bottom’.
Paul O’Connor, national officer for the UKBA, told Public Finance that clearing the backlog while improving performance would be ‘unachievable with even double the resources’. He called for an increase in staffing levels.
Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, agreed that the targets should be revised. She said: ‘It is in everyone’s interests that asylum cases are concluded quickly and fairly. However, it is one thing to have targets, it is another to make them so unrealistic that not only are they not met but they result in the wrong decision and an often lengthy appeals process.’
