Statistics watchdog to investigate Sunak’s claims about clearing asylum backlog

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The statistics watchdog is investigating Rishi Sunak’s claims that the federal government have cleared the asylum backlog, The Independent understands.

The Office for Statistics Regulation has determined to study the bulletins made by Mr Sunak and the Home Office on Tuesday that the federal government had lower the variety of excellent asylum instances.

The prime minister was accused of a “barefaced lie” after figures revealed that almost 100,000 migrants are nonetheless ready for a choice.

The authorities had stated that it had met Mr Sunak’s pledge to clear all so-called legacy asylum claims – counted as these submitted earlier than June 2022. But official statistics confirmed that 4,500 of those instances had nonetheless to be processed.

The prime minister then steered on Tuesday that he had cleared the complete backlog, regardless of knowledge exhibiting that 98,599 claims have been nonetheless languishing within the system.

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

Shadow dwelling secretary Yvette Cooper stated that claims made by Mr Sunak and her Tory counterpart James Cleverly have been “just not true”. Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock accused the prime minister of selling a “barefaced lie” that was “an insult to the public’s intelligence”.

Mr Cleverly had stated that “every single” legacy software had been processed, regardless of hundreds remaining unresolved. He informed the BBC that the federal government had “committed to processing all those applications” not finishing them. He added: “Our commitment was to process them and we’ve done that.”

He additionally admitted that it will be “impossible” to say how lengthy it will take to get by way of the excellent asylum instances.

CEO of Care4Calais, Steve Smith, stated the federal government was making an attempt to “cook the books”, including: “They decided to create a so-called ‘legacy backlog’ to set a political target and it has not been met.”

Data exhibits that the federal government have additionally processed round 25,300 newer asylum claims, as well as to some 86,800 legacy instances, taking the overall variety of choices made previously 12 months to over 112,000, the best determine in twenty years. Of these, 67 per cent have been granted asylum.

Government knowledge printed on Tuesday confirmed that the legacy backlog was drastically lower in the previous couple of months of final 12 months. There have been 33,253 choices left to make in October, however this fell to 4,537 by 28 December.

Thirty-five thousand “non-substantive” choices have been additionally made in 2023 – up from 13,093 in 2022 – which incorporates purposes which are withdrawn, void or paused and subsequently faraway from the official backlog.

The complete asylum backlog now stands at 98,599. This is a lower on report excessive ranges in early 2023 when the backlog stood at practically 140,000, however it’s nonetheless traditionally excessive. In March 2020, the backlog stood at 40,000 and in 2013 the backlog was down at 9,500.

The Home Office additionally revealed that 348 motels have been nonetheless getting used to home asylum seekers in December, a slight lower from 398 in October.