The Home Office has been processing asylum applications amid a high backlog of older cases (Yui Mok/PA)

More than 4,500 ‘legacy’ asylum claims remain in the backlog

By Aine Fox and Ian Jones, PA
17:05 - January 02, 2024

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has claimed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the Government has met its target to clear a backlog in the asylum system.

He wrote: “I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

Evaluation: Misleading

Data published by the Home Office on January 2 2024, the same day that Mr Sunak posted his remarks, states that the total asylum backlog stood at 98,599 applications as of December 28 2023. It may be that Mr Sunak meant to refer just to “legacy” applications, which is the name given to cases that have been in the system since before June 28 2022.  But the Home Office data also states there were 4,537 applications in the legacy backlog as of December 28 2023.

The facts

The number of asylum applications in the “legacy” backlog – defined by the Home Office as applications made before June 28 2022 – that were awaiting an initial decision stood at 100,548 as of June 30 2022, according to the latest available data.

The same data shows this number had fallen to 4,537 as of December 28 2023: a drop of 95%.

However, a press release published by the Home Office on the same day refers in its headline to “Legacy backlog cleared”, continuing: “The Prime Minister’s commitment of clearing the legacy asylum backlog has been delivered, with 112,000 asylum cases being processed in the past year.”

This commitment refers to a statement made by Mr Sunak in the House of Commons on December 13 2022, when he told MPs: “We expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year.”

Unclear language

The language used by the Government to refer to this target has varied.

Mr Sunak in the House of Commons used the word “expect”, but the Home Office press release uses the word “commitment”.

Mr Sunak used the word “abolish” and the Home Office press release in its headline uses the word “cleared”, but the release goes on to say that all cases in the legacy backlog have now been “reviewed”.

And while the Home Office datasheet refers to the 4,537 cases in the legacy backlog as of December 28 2023 as “asylum applications awaiting an initial decision”, the Home Office press release describes them as “4,500 complex cases” which have been “highlighted” and which “require additional checks or investigation for a final decision to be made”.

The datasheet is unambiguous in its presentation of the figures, with the heading “Asylum applications awaiting an initial decision” and the subheading “Legacy backlog”, with a total of 4,537 as of December 28; and the subheading “Total asylum backlog” with a figure of 98,599 as of December 28.

Labour said the Government’s claim to have cleared the asylum backlog is “just not true”.

Downing Street’s response

Downing Street said efforts to clear the asylum legacy backlog had “gone further” than what had initially been pledged by the Prime Minister.

Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters, including the PA news agency, on Tuesday: “We committed to clearing the backlog, that is what the Government has done.

“We are being very transparent about what that entails.

“We have processed all of those cases and indeed gone further than the original commitment. We’re up to 112,000 decisions made overall.

“As a result of that process, there are a small minority of cases which are complex and which, because of our rigorous standards, require further work. But nonetheless, it is a significant piece of work by Home Office officials to process such huge numbers in a short period of time while retaining our rigorous safety standard.”

Links

The Prime Minister’s claim on X (archived)

The Home Office datasheet (see tab IMB_02) (archived)

Home Office definition of the legacy backlog (archived)

The Home Office press release (archived)

The statement to Parliament on December 13 2022 (archived)

Labour response from shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper (archived)

Politics Home report on the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson’s comments when asked about the claim (archived)

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