Sarah Teather – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Teather on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Inspection into the Handling of Asylum Applications made by Unaccompanied Children, published in October 2013, what steps have been taken in response to recommendations 1, 3, 4 and 8 of that report.

James Brokenshire

In response to recommendation 1, a clear and consistent approach has been
adopted. A pilot was run shortly after the inspection that led to the adoption
of a new screening process for unaccompanied children; this has led to
increased consistency between the Home Office and local authorities. All
initial screenings take place within five days of initial claim. Local
Authorities are clearly responsible for facilitating the access to legal advice
and responsible adults prior to the screening interview.

In response to recommendation 3, this guidance and policy has been reinforced
locally. The Asylum Casework Directorate has implemented new structures that
offer better technical support for promoting and monitoring family tracing.
This guidance has been reinforced locally in all teams through the creation of
specialised family and minors teams in each regional location. Work is
ongoing with the Foreign Office on new family tracing arrangements for volume
UASC nationalities (Albanian and Afghan) that should help to expedite the
tracing process in these countries. The practicality of specialised teams
will be reviewed once all decision units are fully staffed.

In response to recommendation 4, the move to a single national directorate has
led to greater consistency and control of asylum case work. This has helped to
address the consistency of operations and outcomes in each of the seven
casework locations. Customer service standards have been reviewed with the
expectation that straightforward claims can expect to receive their decision
within six months. Unaccompanied children should receive their decisions
quicker than that.

In response to recommendation 8, as part of the ongoing continuous improvement
programme decision letters have been reviewed and changed. Templates are now
clearer, more concise and customer friendly. This new approach to producing
more concise grant letters and minutes has been implemented whilst a pilot
regarding refusal letters is underway.