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<p>The date of receipt of the oldest outstanding asylum claim is 23<sup>rd</sup> August
2012.</p><p>There are cases in particular where more complex issues arise around a
claimant’s entitlement to asylum and there is a need for us to engage in wider stakeholder
involvement, alongside additional analysis and scrutiny. These cases continue to be
processed as quickly as possible, but the Secretary of State has to be satisfied that
our decisions are compliant with the 1951 Refugee Convention prior to service as this
is a mandatory requirement.</p><p>The Home Office does not routinely publish information
on the trends in the level of time taken from the date of an asylum claim to the date
of a substantive asylum interview as this information is not held in a reportable
format</p><p>However, the Home Office do publish information on the number of main
asylum applications awaiting an initial decision, by duration from the period end
of March 2020, and can be found in table ASY_04 of the published Immigration statistics
<a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2020/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement"
target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2020/list-of-tables#asylum-and-resettlement</a></p><p>Over
the last 18 months, UK Visas and Immigration have increased the number of Asylum decision
makers and support staff as part of a rolling recruitment campaign and mobilised a
transformation programme that seeks to simplify, streamline and digitise processes
as part of the plans to speed up the asylum decision making process and reduce the
time from date of claim to substantive interview.</p><p>In line with the Home Office’s
commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff and applicants as a top
priority in response to COVID-19, Asylum Operations made the decision to cease face
to face substantive asylum interviews with effect from Thursday 19<sup>th</sup> March
2020.</p><p>However, it is crucial to our applicants that we restart processing their
applications for protection as soon as it is safe to do so. The Home Office has successfully
used video technology to support remote interviewing for more than 2 years and has
appropriate operating procedures that are designed to ensure participants are able
to give the best account of their circumstances.</p><p>To keep people safe but allow
the Home Office to gather the additional information needed to make a decision on
their claim for protection, Asylum Operations have secured additional mobile digital
and video interviewing kit that enables more applicants to be interviewed remotely.
We remain committed to restarting substantive asylum interviews as soon we can establish
a process that allows the participants - applicants, representatives, interpreters
and interviewers - to do so safely.</p>
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