The UK Statistics Authority wrote to Alistair Carmichael MP about Asylum backlog figures

18 January 2024 · Sir Robert Chote, Chair, UK Statistics Authority

The letter, dated 18 January 2024, replies to correspondence of 4 January 2024. The UK Statistics Authority published it as Response from Sir Robert Chote to Alistair Carmichael MP – Asylum backlog figures; it links to 3 official records. Below are 4 passages from the letter in the regulator's own words.

What the UK Statistics Authority wrote

“The average member of the public is likely to interpret a claim to have ‘cleared a backlog’ – especially when presented without context on social media – as meaning that it has been eliminated entirely, so it is not surprising that the Government’s claim has been greeted with scepticism and that some people may feel misled when these ‘hard cases’ remain in the official estimates of the legacy backlog.”

“However, we note that this latest supplementary dataset was not provided along with the press statement when it was released to journalists under embargo on 1 January, which prevented them from being able to scrutinise the data when first reporting it.”

“It is nonetheless welcome that the Home Office publishes and clearly explains the data in this important policy area and that it publishes ad-hoc releases when ministers wish to bring hitherto unreleased numbers into the public domain.”

“This does not support our expectations around intelligent transparency, and we have raised this with the Home Office.”

From Sir Robert Chote, Chair, UK Statistics Authority, letter of 18 January 2024. Read the full letter.

The words the letter quotes

The letter quotes 1 passage from the public record:

“I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

Records the letter links to

• Home Office press release
• letter to the Home Affairs Committee on 29 January 2023
• Home Office published an ad-hoc statistical release

Correspondence

• The letter it answered: Letter from Alistair Carmichael MP to Sir Robert Chote – Asylum backlog figures (3 January 2024)
• The letter it answered: Letter from Stephen Kinnock MP to Sir Robert Chote – Asylum backlog figures (4 January 2024)

Related key figures

• Asylum claims in the UK

More on Alistair Carmichael.

Receipt