Policy paper

Response to an ICIBI report on country of origin information (accessible version)

Published 28 April 2022

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

The Home Office response to the Independent Chief Inspector’s report: country of origin information, January 2022

Introduction

The Home Office thanks the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) for this report, as well as the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI) and the individual reviewers for the positive overall nature of the reviews and the constructive comments and feedback to enable further improvement.

Response to recommendations

  1. There are no recommendations beyond those in the individual reviews of the relevant country products chosen by the IAGCI. The reviews were generally complimentary without contentious suggestions or comments.

  2. We have accepted nearly all the reviewers’ recommendations and have updated our Country Policy and Information Notes (CPINs) accordingly. Where we have not accepted an individual reviewer’s recommendation – for example where the information suggested is too old to use, not publicly accessible or not relevant to the specific topic – we clearly state our reasons for not doing so.

  3. In terms of updating and (re-)issuing the relevant CPINs reviewed:

a. For Ethiopia: the CPIN was removed from the GOV.UK website because the situation had changed significantly since it was written, and we were also awaiting the outcome of a new country guidance case. That has now been promulgated and we published an updated CPIN on 22 March 2022.

b. For Iran: drafts are ready, but we have been waiting for the Chief Inspector’s report to be published so we can directly quote and reference the reviewer. We will arrange to now publish these on our Iran page.

c. For Zimbabwe: there were no substantial comments or recommendations on either CPIN and, as they were recent publications, we have not updated them.