Des Browne

The government has welcomed a further fall in asylum applications.

The Home Office published statistics on Tuesday showing a 20 per cent drop in claims between January and March this year.

There were 10,585 applications in the first three months of 2004, compared to 13,150 from October to December last year.

With dependants such as children and spouses removed from the data, the number of claims fell 17 per cent from 10,830 to 8,940 in the same period.

The figures are good news for ministers who have made much of their commitment to get to grips with the problem.

And the headline figure represents a 44 per cent reduction on the first quarter of 2003.

Speaking at his monthly news conference in Downing Street, the prime minister told reporters that the focus he called for two years ago had brought "dramatic progress".

"Abuse of the asylum system was a problem which is now being gripped," he said.

However Tony Blair will be disappointed with the slow progress made in removing failed asylum seekers.

The total rose only one per cent between December and March, but it has gone up considerably more year-on-year.

With 4,085 removals completed in the quarter there are still more than twice as many asylum seekers arriving as there are departing, although several are allowed to stay.

Legislation

The Home Office is currently pushing legislation through parliament designed to speed up removals, with ministers seeking to reduce the number of appeal stages.

"We are making progress on removals - more than 17,000 failed asylum seekers and dependants in the past year - but there is still more to be done," immigration minister Des Browne said.

"We are pushing ahead with reforms in the Asylum and Immigration Bill to make it easier to remove people who have no legal right to be in this country, and are continuing our discussions with foreign governments."

In a bid to deflect Conservative criticism that the statistics are unreliable, Browne also pointed to a National Audit Office report validating the figures.

"I am pleased that the NAO has confirmed that the government's asylum statistics are reliable and that there is no clear statistical evidence to suggest that the reduction in asylum claims has been achieved by people coming through other immigration categories," he said.

The NAO did make a series of recommendations on how the data could be clarified further.

Blair promised the government would act on them.