PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Asylum: Interviews (28 August 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of effectiveness of teleconferencing interviews for asylum seekers to ensure that the (a) quality and experience of interviews is maintained; (b) claimants do not suffer retraumatisation and dehumanisation; (c) the loss of physical communication and body language does not result in adverse credibility assessments.

Asked by:
Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat)

The Home Office has successfully used video technology to support asylum interviewing since 2017 and has appropriate operating procedures that are designed to ensure participants are able to give the best account of their circumstances.Asylum Operations has an assurance process, the three lines of defence model, which assesses the quality of decisions, interviews and the application of Home Office policy and video conference interviews are a part of this assurance process.

Assurance Compliance and Improvement (ACI) are in the process of conducting second line assurance on interviewing via video conference but we are continuing to complete our own first line assurance.We regularly liaise with partners and received feedback to ensure our standards of interviewing are upheld.

Answered by:
Chris Philp (Conservative)
21 September 2020