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The Independent has learned that the statistics regulator is looking into Rishi Sunak’s statements that the government has resolved the backlog of asylum cases.
The Office for Statistics Regulation will investigate the statements made by Mr Sunak and the Home Office on Tuesday regarding the government’s reduction of pending asylum cases.
The prime minister faced accusations of telling a blatant falsehood after statistics showed that close to 100,000 immigrants are still awaiting a verdict.
The government announced that it fulfilled Mr Sunak’s promise to resolve all outstanding asylum claims, known as legacy claims, submitted before June 2022. However, official data revealed that 4,500 of these cases are still awaiting processing.
On Tuesday, the prime minister indicated that he had resolved the entire backlog, despite evidence showing that 98,599 claims were still pending in the system.
Criticism was directed at Rishi Sunak for allegedly making false statements regarding the elimination of the asylum backlog.
On X, previously known as Twitter, he stated: “I promised that this administration would resolve the backlog of asylum cases by the end of 2023. And that is precisely what we have accomplished.”
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, stated that the statements made by Mr Sunak and her Tory colleague James Cleverly were simply false. Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, criticized the prime minister for spreading a blatant falsehood that was disrespectful to the intelligence of the public.
Mr. Cleverly stated that all legacy applications had been dealt with, even though there are still thousands that have not been resolved. He explained to the BBC that the government had promised to process all of these applications, not necessarily complete them. He also stated, “Our promise was to process them, and we have fulfilled that promise.”
He acknowledged that it would be extremely difficult to determine the amount of time needed to resolve all of the remaining asylum cases.
Steve Smith, the CEO of Care4Calais, accused the government of trying to manipulate the data, stating that they deliberately created a “legacy backlog” in order to reach a specific political goal, which they have failed to achieve.
The information indicates that the government has handled approximately 25,300 recent requests for asylum, in addition to 86,800 older cases, resulting in a total of over 112,000 decisions made in the last year, which is the largest number in twenty years. Out of these, 67 percent were approved for asylum.
According to James Cleverly, all pending asylum claims from previous years have been addressed.
Government data published on Tuesday showed that the legacy backlog was drastically cut in the last few months of last year. There were 33,253 decisions left to make in October, but this fell to 4,537 by 28 December.
In 2023, there were 35,000 decisions made that were considered “non-substantive”. This is an increase from the 13,093 decisions made in 2022. These decisions involve applications that were withdrawn, void, or paused and were therefore taken out of the official backlog.
The current number of pending asylum cases is 98,599, which has decreased from a peak of 140,000 in early 2023. However, it remains significantly higher than previous years, with 40,000 cases in March 2020 and only 9,500 in 2013.
In December, the Home Office reported that 348 hotels were still being utilized to accommodate asylum seekers, a slight drop from 398 in October.
Source: independent.co.uk
