Official Statistics

Immigration and Asylum Ad-hoc Statistics Cover Note

Published 21 October 2020

© Crown copyright 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-and-asylum-ad-hoc-statistics/immigration-and-asylum-ad-hoc-statistics-cover-note

1. Rationale

This ad-hoc publication provides statistics requested in a judicial review application lodged by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants against the Senior President of Tribunals, Upper Tier Immigration and Asylum Chamber (UTIAC) President and Lord Chancellor.

The challenge is to the practice directions and guidance note relating to decisions made under Rule 34 during the COVID-19 response. (Rule 34 gives the UTIAC power to make decisions in appeals without a hearing).

These statistics form a subset of published data which are outside the time period for tribunal statistics. This ad-hoc publication is to provide equal access of the data requested to the public. This is in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics which states “Statistics and data should be equally available to all, not given to some people before others”.

2. Coverage

Within this report, we have focused on the Immigration and Asylum Appeals data requested for 3 consecutive years; 2018/19, 2019/2020 and 1st April to 31st August 2020/2021. The report covers cases;

  • Received,

  • Disposed of,

  • Dismissed,

  • Withdrawn and

  • Remitted.

This data is for both the First and Upper tier tribunals. Monthly data has been used to provide a view of how cases progressed after Rule 34 was applied in the courts. Immigration and Asylum statistics are routinely published within the quarterly Tribunals Statistics series. Further information on other tribunals can be found within the publication.

3. Terms of use

This is management information data and must only be used in a way that takes account of the context under which it has been supplied. The data is the most recent available and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large‐scale case management system and is the best data that is available.

Data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time.

The data is not subject to the same quality checks as Official Statistics which are published by the Ministry of Justice and is subject to change.

Source: extracted from the UTIAC case management system (ARIA). This is a snapshot of live cases, correct on the date of extraction from the case management system.

4. Summary of Findings

First-Tier Tribunals

  • The First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber (FTTIAC) disposed of 3,100 cases in Q1 2020/21 and 4,400 in the financial year up to August 2020. Q1 2020/21 is down 72% (from 11,000 cases) when compared to Q4 2019/20.

  • Of the cases disposed of between April to June 2020 2,100 (68%) were determined, 820 (26%) were withdrawn, 77 (2%) were struck out, and 110 (3%) were invalid/out of time. This is compared to 9,000 (82%) determined, 1,500 (14%) withdrawn, 290 (3%) struck out, and 230 (2%) invalid/out of time between January to March 2020.

  • Of the cases disposed in the current financial year up to August 2020 2,600 (59%) were determined, 1,500 (34%) were withdrawn, 150 (3%) were struck out, and 140 (3%) were invalid/out of time.

  • In April to June 2020, of the determined FTTIAC cases 51% (1,100 cases) were allowed and 49% (1,000 cases) were dismissed. There were 4,300 cases allowed and 4,700 cases dismissed in January to March 2020 (48% and 52% of FTTIAC cases determined respectively).

  • In the current financial year up to August 2020, of the determined FTTIAC cases 50% (1,300 cases) were allowed and 50% (1,300 cases) were dismissed.

  • There was a 69% decrease in the number of First-tier Permission Applications (FTPA) received in Q1 2020/21 when compared to Q4 2019/20 (from 3,500 to 1,100). In the current financial year up to August 2020, there were 1,300 FTPA received.

  • FTPA disposals rose by 8% over the same period (from 3,100 to 3,300). In the current financial year up to August 2020, there were 4,900 FTPA disposals.

  • From Q4 2019/20 to Q1 2020/21 the number of FTPA cases granted and refused rose 27% and 5% respectively (from 600 and 2,400 to 760 and 2,600 respectively). The number of cases withdrawn and remitted fell over the same period, by 84% and 79% respectively (from 37 and 24 to 6 and 5 respectively).

  • In the current financial year up to August 2020, the number of FTPA cases granted and refused were 1,000 and 3,900 respectively. The number of cases withdrawn and remitted over the same period were 9 and 21 respectively.

Upper Tribunal

  • Between 1st April 2020 and 31st August 2020, the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber (UTIAC) received 1,500 appeals and disposed of 600 cases.

  • Caseload outstanding for UTIAC stood at 2,200 at the end of August 2020.

  • There was a 19% decline in the number of Upper Tribunal Permission Applications (UTPA) received between April to June 2020 when compared to January to March 2020 (from 1,800 to 1,500).

  • UTPA disposals more than halved (falling 55%) over the same period (from 1,700 to 790).

  • In the current financial year up to August 2020, the number of UTPA received was 2,600 and the number of UTPA disposed of was 2,300.

  • From Q4 2019/20 to Q1 2020/21 there was a decline in each UTPA outcome category (granted, refused, withdrawn and remitted), by 50%, 55%, 83% and 100% respectively. The number of cases remitted decreased from 2 to 0.

  • In the current financial year up to August 2020, the number of UTPA disposals by outcome category (granted, refused, withdrawn and remitted), were 470, 1,800, 7 and 1 respectively.

  • The Upper Tribunal Appeal received 930 cases and disposed of 260 cases in Q1 2020/21. This is down from 950 and 810 when compared to Q4 2019/20 respectively (down 3% and 68% respectively).

  • In the current financial year up to August 2020, the Upper Tribunal Appeal received 1,500 cases and disposed of 600 cases.

  • Of the cases disposed of between April to June 2020, 190 (71%) were determined, 17 (6%) were withdrawn, and 59 (23%) were remitted. This is compared to 540 (67%) determined, 53 (7%) withdrawn, 220 (27%) remitted between January to March 2020.

  • Of the cases disposed of in the current financial year up to August 2020, 380 (65%) were determined, 39 (7%) were withdrawn, and 170 (29%) were remitted.

  • In April to June 2020, of the determined Upper Tribunal Appeal cases 32% (60 cases) were allowed and 68% (130 cases) were dismissed. These are the same proportions as those in January to March 2020 (with 170 allowed and 360 dismissed cases in Upper Tribunal Appeal).

  • Of the determined Upper Tribunal Appeal cases in the current financial year, 26% (98 cases) were allowed and 74% (290 cases) were dismissed.

5. Contact

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice or HMCTS press office:

Daniel Mulloy - email: [email protected]

Other enquiries and feedback on these statistics should be directed to the Justice Statistics Analytical Services division of the Ministry of Justice:

Carly Gray - email: [email protected]

Next update: 10 December 2020 (URL: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics)

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