THE backlog of asylum cases in the UK has hit a new record high, Home Office figures show.
A total of 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2023, up 44% from 122,213 at the end of June 2022 and the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 139,961 at the end of June, up 57% year-on-year from 89,231 and another record high.
Home Office spending on asylum in the UK in 2022/23 stood at £3.97 billion, nearly double the £2.12bn in 2021/22, government figures show.
The rise in asylum applications waiting for an initial decision is “due to more cases entering the asylum system than receiving initial decisions”, the Home Office said.
However, the number of cases waiting a decision has risen by less than 1% in the three months to the end of June, suggesting the rise is slowing down.
“This is in part due to an increase in the number of initial decisions made, and an increase in the number of asylum decision makers employed,” the Home Office added.
There were 23,702 initial decisions made on asylum applications in the UK in the year to June 2023, up 61% on 14,730 in the year to June 2022.
It is also above the 20,766 decisions made in the pre-pandemic calendar year of 2019.
The record-high asylum backlog amounts to a “disastrous record” for the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, Labour has said.
Just over seven in 10 (71%) of initial decisions on asylum applications in the year to June 2023 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave.
This is “substantially higher” than in pre-pandemic years, when around a third of initial decisions were grants, the Home Office said.
The grant rate has been above 70% since 2021.
Before then, the previous high was in 1990, when it stood at 82%, although the volume of applications was much lower at that time.
There were 78,768 asylum applications in the UK in the year to June 2023, relating to 97,390 people.
This is up year-on-year from 66,384 applications relating to 79,922 people in the 12 months to June 2022.
However it is lower than the figures for the year to December 2022 (81,130 applications relating to 99,939 people) and also the year to March 2023 (80,452 applications relating to 99,388 people), suggesting the numbers may have peaked.
Albania was the most common nationality applying for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2023, with 11,790 applications by Albanian nationals, 7557 of which came from arrivals on boats crossing the English Channel.
The number of Albanian small boat arrivals peaked during the summer of 2022 and by early 2023 had dropped below levels seen in 2021.
Afghans were the second most common nationality applying for asylum in the year to June 2023, with 9964 applications, almost double the number in the previous 12 months (5,154).
