Please note the following correction to the Departmental Report 2002 - 2003:
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Asylum appeal cases are handled by the Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA). There are two stages to the appeal process. At the first stage, a single legally qualified adjudicator hears the case and considers the evidence from the appellant and the Home Secretary and comes to a decision. When this decision is delivered, either party can then seek leave to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal. If leave to appeal is granted, a panel of usually three members considers the grounds of the appeal against the adjudicator's decision.
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Target
In terms of asylum to increase the proportion of appeals completed within four months to 65% from 2002/03 (SDA 28)
Performance
Of the cases received between 1 April and December 2002, 43% were completed through both the Adjudicator and Tribunal tiers of the IAA within 17 weeks.
This needs to be viewed against a background where the IAA expanded its capacity to handle 6,000 asylum and 2,000 non asylum cases each month. Whilst carrying out a programme of expansion, the IAA still managed to determine 50% more cases in 2002/03 than in the previous year, clearing more cases that it received. The IAA also received 5,000 extra cases from the Home Office in September 2002, in addition to the 4,500 expected. Excluding these cases, the IAA completed 47% of asylum appeals through both tiers of the IAA within 17 weeks.
LCD and the Home Office have a new joint target for 2003/04. The aim is to clear 75% of asylum cases end-to-end within 6 months of the application by March 2006. To help achieve this, we will be looking to clear 60% within 6 months during 2003/04.
Initiatives
The IAA has introduced a number of new measures over the year to increase case management and improve overall efficiency. These include:
the introduction of new sitting and listing patterns, which have improved the disposal rate for judiciary and the utilisation of courtroom capacity
the implementation and evaluation of an expedited appeals process for manifestly unfounded cases
the effective introduction of a non-suspensive appeals system for asylum cases certified as clearly unfounded
a data quality project cleansing exercise to ensure that the database holds all current information on the appeal cases, allowing for accurate performance reporting and management information.
the opening of a second back office in Leicester in November 2002 to deal with day-to-day administrative management of the appeals workload, freeing up staff at hearing centres to concentrate on ensuring that hearings are effective.
the opening of new hearing centres in Bradford, North Shields and Stoke
The IAA is continuing to work closely with the Home Office to develop improved case management to achieve 'end to end' processing of asylum appeals within shorter timescales.
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Target
To reduce in real terms the unit cost of an asylum appeal by an average of 3% per year (SDA 50)
Performance
The target for 2002/03, not including accommodation and overheads, was £994 (This is a 3% reduction for an outturn of £1025 for 2001/02). The current unit cost calculation based on provisional 2002/03 expenditure figures is £1,140. The increased unit cost is due to the substantial expenditure on new buildings, IT and training to meet requirements of the IAA expansion programme. The high levels of expenditure are disproportionate to the number of cases processed in the 2002/03 financial year
Page 34. The following should replace the current section on Defendants:
5. Defendants
Respecting the rights of defendants is an integral part of the whole Criminal Justice System (CJS). The Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) has a unique role in doing that: our objective is to ensure that all defendants are given proper legal advice and support in order to present their case and receive a fair trial. In addition, LCD leads the CJS on monitoring the way the whole system respects the rights of defendants. To achieve this, we have agreed a 'basket' of measures within SDA4. These measures are:
98 per cent of prisons by March 2004 to have a Legal Services Officer so as to ensure that all prisoners receive information about legal services on reception and know who can assist them with applications for public funding;
80 per cent of prisons holding remand prisoners to have a bail information scheme by March 2002, rising to 90 per cent by March 2003;
90 per cent of people in police stations requesting the services of a duty solicitor to receive the service within 45 minutes by March 2004 (SDA63).
50 per cent of magistrates' courts to have full access to a comprehensive courts-based bail information scheme by March 2002, rising to 80 per cent by March 2003;
Performance
Performance is measured by performance against a target to improve the standard
by which the CJS meets the rights of defendants by March 2004, by achieving
100% of targets in the basket of measures. Of the four targets, we have
met the first two. For the third target, the latest return from the Legal
Services Commission was that 88% of people in police stations requesting
the services of a duty solicitor received the service within 45 minutes.
This return applies to all publicly funded advice in the police station
and not just duty solicitors as it is a more appropriate measure [the figure
for duty solicitor alone is 89%]. It is possible that the fourth target
will not be met. This measure is the responsibility of the Probation Service.
Due to workload pressures, they have had to re-prioritise bail information
schemes away from magistrates' courts to Crown courts. The latest return,
collected in autumn 2002 was 65%. The next return will be in July 2003.
Unfortunately, the Allnut review of data collection in the CJS did not produce
any new defendant-specific data sources. However, we are monitoring data
in other areas of the CJS to find suitable new measures, which we will add
to the basket.
June 2003