Abolish asylum backlog by end of 2023
“we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year.”
Not met
Where it stands
Home Office statistics show 95,252 asylum cases (128,786 people) still awaiting an initial decision at the end of December 2023, 28% fewer than a year earlier. The Home Office describes the pledge as one to clear the "legacy" backlog of claims made before 28 June 2022, and on 2 January 2024 said that target had been met, with every legacy case reviewed and about 4,500 complex cases needing further checks; its statistics put the legacy cases still awaiting an initial decision at 3,902 at the end of 2023. On either count the backlog was not abolished by the end of 2023, so the card reads Not met.
What has happened
- Dec 2022The Prime Minister tells the Commons he expects to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of 2023, Promised
- Dec 2023Backlog of initial asylum decisions due to be abolished, Deadline
- Feb 2024Home Office statistics: 95,252 cases still awaiting an initial decision at the end of December 2023, 3,902 of them legacy cases, Not met evidence
About the cost
No figure in the statement, and no costing of the pledge was published with it.
More detail
Sources (3)
How cards are checked
Status follows the promise standard, the same for every party. A status changes only on evidence. Anyone named on a card can reply, and replies are published next to it. AI Journalist is our automated reviewer: it re-reads every card against its live sources (the quote word for word, dates, evidence, status, cost, neutral wording, legal risk). An editor, Pavel Guzhikov, then checks each card against its sources and approves it.
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