Accredited official statistics

How many cases are in the UK asylum system?

Published 22 May 2025

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-march-2025/how-many-cases-are-in-the-uk-asylum-system

Back to ‘Immigration system statistics, year ending March 2025’ content page.

Data relates to the year ending March 2025 and all comparisons are with the year ending March 2024 (unless indicated otherwise).

An asylum claim may relate to more than one person, if the main applicant has family members (‘dependants’) who are included in the same claim.

These statistics focus on the number of asylum cases (which excludes dependants) in the UK asylum system.

Statistics on other parts of the asylum system are available in other chapters of this report - ‘How many people claim asylum in the UK?’ and ‘How many people are granted asylum?’.

1. How many asylum cases are awaiting an initial decision?

In the latest quarter, the number of cases awaiting an initial decision has fallen, as new claims have decreased while outcomes remained stable.

At the end of March 2025 there were 78,745 cases (relating to 109,536 people) awaiting an initial decision, 13% fewer than at the end of the previous quarter (December 2024). Figure 1 shows that the number cases awaiting an initial decision has fallen 41% from the peak of 134,046 in June 2023. This remains higher than in the period 2010 to 2018, when the number of cases awaiting a decision grew from around 6,000 to 27,000.

Figure 1: Number of cases and people awaiting an initial decision and number of cases in the asylum system, as at 31 March 2015 to as at 31 Mar 20251, 2

Source: Asylum claims awaiting a decision – Asy_D03 and Migration Transparency Data collection – Asy_03

Notes:

  1. The total number of cases in the asylum system is published annually and is main applicants only.
  2. Figures relate to the number of cases or people awaiting a decision at the end of the period, rather than the total throughout the period.

Figure 2: Quarterly asylum claims, initial decisions, other outcomes, and changes in the number of cases awaiting an initial decision, 2020 Q1 (January to March) to 2025 Q1 (January to March) 1, 2

Source: Asylum claims, initial decisions and asylum claims awaiting a decision – Asy_D01, Asy_D02 and Asy_D03

Notes:

  1. Main applicants only.
  2. Claims, initial decisions (grants and refusals) and other outcomes (withdrawals and administrative outcomes) are based on the quarter they occurred in, while the change in the cases awaiting an initial decision (ID WIP) is the change between the initial decision WIP at the end of the quarter compared to at the end of the previous quarter.

Figure 2 shows that the increase in cases awaiting an initial decision between June 2021 and June 2023 follows the increase in claims during this period, paired with a comparatively low number of decisions. The subsequent decrease in cases awaiting an initial decision between September 2023 and June 2024 largely reflects an increase in the number of initial decisions, despite the number of new claims remaining high each quarter.

The increase in the number of decisions in the second half of 2023 was due to a combination of factors, including an increase in the number of asylum decision makers, and improvements in decision maker productivity. The improvements included simplified guidance, shorter focused interviews, and streamlining initiatives (including the Streamlined Asylum Process, which sought to accelerate the processing of manifestly well-founded asylum claims and, where possible, allow positive decisions to be taken without the need for a substantive interview).

By December 2023, caseworkers had completed processing the majority of cases which had been raised prior to the Nationalities and Borders Act (2022). However, asylum claims from individuals who claimed asylum on or after 7 March 2023 had been on hold under the Illegal Migration Act. This led to a reduction in the numbers of decisions in 2024.

The Home Secretary laid a statutory instrument on 22 July 2024 to remove the retrospective application of the Illegal Migration Act. As a result, decision making on these claims has now resumed, leading to an increase in the number of initial decisions in the last two quarters. In the latest quarter, the number of asylum claims has also decreased while outcomes have remained stable compared to the previous quarter, resulting in the number of cases awaiting an initial decision falling by 13%.

2. How long do people wait for an initial decision?

As at the end of March 2025, almost a third of cases had been waiting for an initial decision for over a year, a lower proportion than in the years prior to 2024.

Figure 3: Percentage of claims awaiting an initial decision by duration, as at 31 March 2020 to as at 31 March 20251

Source: Migration Transparency Data collection – Asy_02

Notes:

  1. Main applicants only.

Figure 3 shows that as at 31 March 2025, 58% of cases that were awaiting an initial decision had been doing so for more than 6 months, and 31% of total cases had been awaiting an initial decision for more than 12 months. This is compared to a year prior when 64% of cases had been waiting more than 6 months and 24% of cases had been waiting more than 12 months. However, between 2020 and 2023 between 33% and 55% of cases had been awaiting an initial decision for more than 12 months.

The proportion of cases waiting more than 12 months for an initial decision has fallen between June 2023 and June 2024, likely because of the sharp increase in decisions at the end of 2023, compared with the previous year.

The increase in the proportion of cases waiting more than 12 months for an initial decision since summer 2024 is likely because cases from 7 March 2023 onwards in the post-NABA backlog were previously on hold, and decision making did not resume on these cases until later in 2024.

3. How many asylum cases are in the overall asylum casework system?

In addition to those awaiting an initial decision, the asylum casework system includes cases who have appealed their initial decision and are awaiting an outcome, as well as failed asylum seekers who are subject to removal from the UK.

The number of cases in the asylum system was at a record high in June 2024, with over half of cases having received an initial decision but awaiting further action.

There were 224,742 cases in the asylum system at the end of June 2024, of which less than 40% were cases awaiting an initial decision. The total number of cases is published annually in table ASY_03 of Immigration and protection data, as part of the ‘Migration transparency data’. The latest data relates to June 2024.

The number of cases in the asylum system has increased over fourfold over the last decade, from 55,814 at the end of June 2014 to 224,742 at the end of June 2024. Of these, 40% of cases were awaiting an initial decision, whilst the remaining cases will be those awaiting an appeal outcome or removal from the UK.

For further information on appeals and asylum-related returns, see the tribunal statistics from HMCTS and the ‘Returns summary tables’.

4. How many asylum seekers are receiving housing and financial support?

People in the asylum system who are destitute can receive support from the UK Government. This support could be the provision of accommodation, subsistence (cash support) or both, and is overseen by the Home Office. More information on asylum support is published on GOV.UK.

At the end of March 2025 the number of individuals in receipt of asylum support had fallen from the end of the previous quarter but was similar to a year prior.

Figure 4: Number of people in receipt of asylum support, by the type of support, as at 31 March 2023 to as at 31 March 2025

Source: Asylum seekers in receipt of support – Asy_D09

Figure 4 shows that at the end of March 2025, there were 106,771 individuals in receipt of asylum support. This was 5% lower than at the end of 2024, and similar to a year ago (the end of March 2024). This was also 14% fewer than at the end of September 2023, when the number of supported asylum seekers peaked at 123,758 people.

Of the supported population as at 31 March 2025:

  • 32,345 (30%) were in hotel accommodation, 15% lower than at the end of 2024 and 42% lower than the peak of 56,042 at the end of September 2023
  • 71,339 (67%) were in other accommodation, including initial, contingency and dispersal accommodation, similar to at the end of 2024
  • 3,087 (3%) were in receipt of subsistence support only, similar to at the end of 2024

As at the end of March 2025, 4% (4,241) of people claiming asylum support were doing so under Section 4. This is available when an asylum application has been finally determined as refused, but the applicant is destitute and there are reasons that temporarily prevent them from leaving the UK. The remaining 96% (102,530) of people claiming asylum support were doing so under either Section 95 or Section 98, where the vast majority are awaiting a decision on either an asylum claim or an appeal.

Please note that the data excludes unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), who are supported by local authorities.

At the end of March 2025, there were 57,476 single applicants and 49,295 members of family groups (relating to 14,587 families) on support.

At the end of March 2025, the majority of asylum seekers supported by Home Office were located in England (89%). The North West region had 19% of the total supported population (20,416 people) slightly more than London (19,960 people).

The North East and North West regions supported the largest number of asylum seekers as a proportion of their overall population (2,758 and 2,686 people per million residents respectively).

Figure 5: Supported asylum seekers per million population, by local authority as at 31 March 20251, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: Regional and local authority data on immigration groups – Reg_02 and Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025

Notes:

  1. Includes main applicants and dependants.
  2. Per million population figures are based on population of the local authority.
  3. Figures are the number of supported asylum seekers per million of the local authority’s population, for the five local authorities with the highest number of supported asylum seekers per million population.
  4. Local authority data is based on the registered address of the asylum seeker. This is not necessarily the location at which the individual regularly resides.

Of individual local authorities, Glasgow City was supporting the highest number of asylum seekers (4,152), followed by Hillingdon (2,946), Birmingham (2,504), Liverpool (2,385) and Hounslow (2,097).

In addition to supported asylum seekers, people will have come to the UK on safe and legal (humanitarian) routes and will be accommodated in local authorities. More detail is available in table Res_D01 of the ‘Resettlement data tables’ and table Reg_02 of the ‘Regional and local authority data on immigration groups’.

Data referred to here can be found in the following tables:

Further links:

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