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<p>The asylum system has been under pressure for several years, but this has been
exacerbated by the global pandemic. At the start of the COVID outbreak, whilst intake
reduced, so did interview options and decision making capacity. We put in place recovery
plans and continue to develop these in light of recent intake.</p><p>The Home Office
is pursuing a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives which
will speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce
the numbers who are awaiting an interview or decision. This includes almost doubling
decision makers number to c.1,000 and providing improved training and career progression
opportunities to aid retention of staff. This investment in our people will speed
up processing times and increase the throughput of asylum decisions.</p><p>We are
continuing to develop existing and new technology to help build on recent improvements
such as digital interviewing and move away from a paper-based system. We are streamlining
and digitalising the case working process to enable more effective workflow, appointment
booking and decision-making.</p>
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