By Richard Johnstone | 29 October 2014
The Home Office has failed to get to grips with the backlog of applications for asylum since Home Secretary Theresa May abolished the UK Border Agency and took the work in-house, MPs have said today.
Examining the impact of the government’s changes to the border and immigration system in March 2013, the Public Accounts Committee highlighted that 29,000 applications dating back to at least 2007 remained unresolved. In more than a third (11,000) of these cases people have not even received an initial decision on their asylum claim.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge said the Home Office was also failing to meet its own targets for dealing with newer claims, so it was now creating another backlog for itself.
The number of claims awaiting an initial decision was up 70% to 16,273 in the first three months of 2014 compared to the same period last year.
The decision to break up the agency had been prompted by its troubled history, the Reforming the UK border and immigration system report stated. While performance in most of the areas transferred has held steady, the changes had failed to deal with long-standing backlog of asylum claims.
‘The pressure is on, and the Home Office must take urgent steps to sort out this immigration mess,’ Hodge said.
In particular, the department should ensure it has the right number of staff, with the right skills and the right incentives, to resolve outstanding claims promptly and prevent any new backlogs being created.
In addition, Hodge highlighted the more than 175,000 people whose application to stay in the UK had been rejected but were still awaiting removal as of the end of 2013/14.
‘It is deeply worrying that the Home Office is not tracking those people whose applications have been rejected to ensure that they are removed from the UK. ‘The number of such cases has not been reduced over time. Some may have left the UK voluntarily, but without exit checks it is almost impossible to know. The department should, as a matter of urgency, take more steps to identify people that remain in the UK illegally and speed up their removal.’
Computing projects, which had been intended to streamline the process of dealing with applications, had failed, the PAC noted. This had left the department reliant on archaic IT systems and had also potentially cost the taxpayer as much as £1bn.
‘The cancellation of the Immigration Case Work programme and the e-Borders IT programme could mean a gobsmackingly awful figure being wasted,’ Hodge said.
Responding to the report, immigration and security minister James Brokenshire said the government had inherited a totally dysfunctional immigration system, with abuse of family, work and student visas.
‘UKBA was a failing organisation that could not deliver an efficient immigration system for Britain. This is why we split it up into three separate divisions to improve focus on their specific roles in delivering a controlled immigration system and bring them under the direct supervision of ministers.
'Turning around years of mismanagement has taken time, but it is now well underway. We have reformed visa routes to make them more resistant to fraud and cancelled failing contracts; and we are addressing the backlogs we inherited.'
