UK asylum: people awaiting an initial decision
UK asylum: people awaiting an initial decision stood at 64,426 people in 2025, according to Home Office — Immigration system statistics. It is one of the indicators in the Asylum claims and support (Home Office) table (Value · Annual), with a complete series running from 2010 to 2025. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Asylum claims and support (Home Office) table
| Indicator | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claims awaiting a decision | |||||||||||
| People awaiting an initial decision (year end) | 64,426 | 124,802 | 128,786 | 160,919 | 100,564 | 64,895 | 51,228 | 35,855 | 29,522 | 27,857 | |
| Cases awaiting an initial decision (year end) | 48,723 | 90,686 | 95,252 | 132,182 | 81,978 | 51,321 | 40,032 | 27,256 | 22,234 | 21,475 |
Understanding UK asylum: people awaiting an initial decision
This series measures the cumulative inventory of individuals whose applications for international protection remain awaiting an initial adjudication by authorities in the United Kingdom at the end of the reporting period. It captures every person trapped in the administrative backlog, combining both main applicants and their dependants whose cases have yet to receive a substantive decision. Excluded from this count are individuals who have already received an initial decision and are awaiting appeal hearings, as well as those whose cases have been formally closed, granted, or withdrawn.
When reading this inventory measure, analysts must understand that it represents a stock figure accumulated over multiple years, making short-term monthly or quarterly comparisons less meaningful than annual trajectory evaluations. Provisional figures at year-end undergo subsequent data cleansing to remove duplicate entries or ghost records. This series should not be read in isolation from decision throughput metrics; a rising inventory can stem from either surging application inflows or declining adjudication capacity. Comparing this person-based metric with case-based backlogs requires noting average household size variations over time.
Frequently asked questions
- Does this backlog count include individuals waiting for an appeal outcome?
- No, it is strictly limited to people awaiting their very first substantive initial decision.
- Are dependants included in this person count?
- Yes, every individual whose file remains pending, including family members, is tallied here.
- How does this series differ from case-based backlog measures?
- This metric counts individual human beings, whereas case series count administrative application files which may contain multiple people.