Tribunal system reforms to speed up asylum decisions
A new independent body will be set up to speed up decision making on asylum appeal cases.
Asylum appeals will be overhauled and speeded up to clear the backlog, accelerate returns and end hotel use under some of the most significant changes to the asylum system in decades.
As part of efforts to fix the broken asylum system the government inherited and end the use of asylum hotels, a new independent body to deal with asylum appeals made up of independent professional adjudicators, will be established to hear cases more quickly.
The proposals, driven jointly by the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, will reduce the number of asylum appeal cases in the system by ensuring cases awaiting decision can be heard faster, in turn reducing the backlog and creating a more efficient system. They are driven by serious concerns among Ministers that existing measures including increased investment in court sitting days are not delivering the pace of change needed to clear the asylum appeal backlog.
The new body will be fully independent of government with safeguards to ensure high standards and is expected to use the expertise of independent professionally trained adjudicators focusing particularly on asylum appeals, and will allow capacity to be surged so cases can be cleared. It will have statutory powers to prioritise cases from those in asylum accommodation and foreign national offenders.
Currently, there is a backlog of 106,000 cases waiting to be heard by the First-Tier Tribunal, including at least 51,000 asylum appeals. Wait times are increasing, with an average wait time of 53 weeks.
As initial asylum decisions have accelerated, court delays over appeals are now the biggest cause of pressure in the asylum accommodation system which is costing the taxpayer billions of pounds each year.
Doubling of asylum decisions since the election means that the number of asylum seekers waiting for an initial decision has gone down 24% in the space of 12 months and is falling further. However, the number of failed asylum seekers now waiting in the appeal system has increased substantially as most failed asylum seekers then appeal and decisions even on a first appeal can take more than a year to be made.
To relieve pressure on the system, the government has provided funding to increase the number of sitting days in the First-tier Tribunal, with the aim of ensuring it operates at maximum capacity. However, the tribunal cannot keep up with fluctuating and increasing demand, so an alternative approach is needed that can provide wider and more flexible capacity.
Ministers are also introducing a new legal requirement for a 24-week timeframe for the First Tier Tribunal to determine asylum appeals by those receiving asylum accommodation support and appeals by foreign offenders.
But the current tribunal system is still failing to keep up with the particular requirements to clear the asylum system so that failed asylum seekers can be returned as swiftly as possible. Nor can it accommodate a fast track system for safe countries.
The government will set out further details of our plans to fast-track cases in the asylum system this autumn.
Lessons are also being learned from other European countries who have faster appeal systems including countries which run independent appeal bodies rather than absorbing appeals entirely into the main courts and judicial systems.
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, said:
We inherited an asylum system in complete chaos with a soaring backlog of asylum cases and a broken appeals system with thousands of people in the system for years on end. That is why we are taking practical steps to fix the foundations and restore control and order to the system.
We are determined to substantially reduce the number of people in the asylum system as part of our plan to end asylum hotels. Already since the election we have reduced the backlog of people waiting for initial decisions by 24% and increased failed asylum returns by 30%.
But we cannot carry on with these completely unacceptable delays in appeals as a result of the system we have inherited which mean that failed asylum seekers stay in the system for years on end at huge cost to the taxpayer. Overhauling the appeals system so that it is swift, fair and independent, with high standards in place, is a central part of our Plan for Change.
Since taking office, this government has taken immediate action to fix the asylum system to start exiting hotels and surging returns of more than 35,000 people with no right to be here, including more than 5,000 foreign national offenders.
At its peak under the last government over 400 asylum hotels were open in summer 2023, costing almost £9 million a day. There are now just over 200 and better use of the hotels of the ones we must use have helped cut asylum costs by 11%.
The government has surged asylum decision-making capacity, delivering over 31,000 initial decisions to people per quarter – triple the average under the previous government.
The case backlog is down 18%, with the number of people waiting decisions down by 24% and we’ve achieved the third-highest quarterly decision rate since records began in 2002.
The Immigration White Paper announced in May also details plans to introduce legislation that tightens the application of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on such appeals.