Regional Director for London and South East's Office
14th Floor, Long Wing, Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road
Croydon CR9 2BY
HomeOffice
UK Border
Agency
Web
www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk
2 March 2011
Ref: FOI 17640
Dear Mr XXXXX
Thank you for your email of 6 February to the UK Border Agency Freedom of Information
Team about lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (lGBT) asylum applications. This falls
to be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
It is noted that you previously made a request for this information and received a reply on 23
August 2010, however, you did not feel that the response given answered your question. You
have requested information on the number of asylum claims made on the grounds of sexual
orientation over the past few years (ie annual figures since 2004) and if possible the amount
of positive decisions, refusals, appeals and allowed appeals and this was not provided in the
previous response.
You have further stated that if there is a cost limit that you would request that data is
provided for as many quarters as possible and that a breakdown of how the expenditure was
calculated is provided.
As you will appreciate the reasons for asylum applications vary enormously with many being
very specific to the individual concerned. The Agency does not routinely record, on a central
database, the grounds of application. Instead applications are simply listed as asylum
applications with the detail being confined to the person's individual case record. Tnerefore
to provide the data you have requested it would be necessary to look at each individual
application for asylum and manually record the reason for application.
Between 2004 and the 3rdquarter of 2010 approximately 175,000 applications for asylum
have been made. As stated above to obtain the information required we would need to look
at each individual application for asylum. We believe such an approach would breach the
£600 limit which relates to FOI requests. The £600 limit applies to all central government
departments and is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates
to 3 ~ days work per request. Prescribed costs include those which cover the cost of
locating and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you. They do not include
considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating
or lighting, or disbursements such as photocopying or postage.
You have stated that if we believe that your original request exceeded the cost threshold
then you would request that we provided you with as many quarters of information as could
be provided within the threshold. In the first 3 quarters of 2010 there were 13,160
applications for asylum. Given the threshold test above even within you refined request it
would not be possible to extract even 1 quarters information within the £600 limit. This is due
to the need to individually extrapolate information from each asylum application and the time
this would take. We have worked this out on the basis that it would take a trained person 10
minutes to go through the case record and ascertain the basis of claim for each individual
application.
Although your request would at present be too costly to answer if you refine it so that it falls
under the cost limit we will consider it further. However, if your new request would still require
a search of a substantial number of individual case records, thereby also exceeding the £600
cost threshold, we may decline to answer.
You have also asked whether any steps are being taken by UKBA or other Home Office
departments to monitor or otherwise address the number of asylum claims made on the
grounds of sexual orientation or to address other issues relating to that group of claims, for
example ensuring that determinations take into account appropriate and relevant country of
origin guidance and are made by appropriately trained caseworkers.
The Agency is looking at how data on sexual orientation cases can be recorded more
effectively and at whether any resulting data can be published in future. This has included
asking case owners to begin recording manually where the Supreme Court ruling applies.
Because the data was recorded manually, and not as part of an established system, the
information collected is not robust. It is being used solely as indicative management
information and not as a basis for drawing significant conclusion or for developing policy.
Specific guidance on how to implement the Supreme Court ruling was quickly developed for
caseworkers, with the valuable assistance of internal and external partners including a
number of LGBT groups and organisations. This new asylum instruction 'Sexual orientation
and gender identity' was published in October 2010.
The UK Border Agency has also developed a training course which supports the new
guidance and helps decision makers to determine applications brought on the grounds of
sexual orientation in a sensitive manner that acknowledges the difficulties, trauma and
alienation that people bringing these claims may have experienced in their country of origin.
External partners have provided valuable input into this course. The course has been rolled
out nationwide and training of caseowners will be completed in February. Both the guidance
and training will be subject to ongoing audit and evaluation.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of
our handling of your request. Internal review requests should be submitted within two
months of the UK Border Agency sending a substantive reply to your original request and
should be addressed to:
Information Access Team
Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1 P 4DF
During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be
reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you
remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the
Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely,
Ross Lewington
Regional Directors Office
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