The government does not have a date for when non-judges will begin to hear asylum appeals, MPs heard this week - despite the measure being announced last summer because judges were not clearing the backlog quickly enough.

The Home Office declared last August that a new independent body of professional adjudicators would be established to hear asylum appeals more quickly, noting that the backlog of cases waiting to be heard by the first-tier tribunal stood at 106,000, including 51,000 asylum appeals.

However, asked by the House of Commons public accounts committee this week when the new body will come into force, Simon Ridley, second permanent secretary at the Home Office, said the timetable for change was dependent on legislation that needed to be drawn up and 'we don’t at the moment have a precise delivery date for the new body'.

Read more

Emma Churchill, a director general at the Ministry of Justice, told the committee that 25 salaried and 61 fee-paid judges have recently been recruited, which will hopefully mean 460 judges sitting in March. With two further recruitment rounds now open, the ministry wants 550 judges by March 2027. Some 24 retired judges are supporting hearings in the tribunal and around 60 judges from other chambers are being drafted in.

To ensure tribunal time is not wasted, Churchill said HM Courts & Tribunals Service will increase capacity in the tribunal’s ‘virtual region’, where cases are heard remotely, so that double the volume of appeals can be heard every day. The virtual region currently has a sitting day profile of 1,000. More 'float lists' - where a case can be dropped in if another case falls - will also be created.

Asked about legal aid to avoid undue delays, MoJ permanent secretary Dr Jo Farrar said the number of providers is being monitored and fees have been uplifted. ‘We’re also looking at things like accreditation funding, which providers would normally pay for. We’re looking at paying for that.’