The number of asylum seekers in hotels has increased

During an interview on GB News on 8 August, justice secretary Alex Chalk was asked about a “backlog of… 50,000 migrants that are currently in hotels”.

In response, Mr Chalk said “in terms of the backlog that you referred to, that backlog is coming down, so it's down by 17,000 over recent weeks”.

These figures appear to refer to two different sets of statistics relating to people seeking asylum. While the GB News presenter was referring to the number of asylum seekers being temporarily housed in hotels, the Ministry of Justice confirmed to Full Fact that Mr Chalk was referring to the reduction in the backlog in asylum applications made before 28 June 2022 (which the government has termed the “legacy backlog”).

A government spokesperson said: “The most recent data shows the number of outstanding legacy asylum cases has fallen by 17,000 from December 2022 to May 2023 – which helps reduce the amount of people held in hotels.”

Home Office data does show that this backlog fell by over 17,000 between 30 November 2022 and 28 May 2023. The number of asylum seekers in hotels, which the GB News presenter was asking about, has increased over the same period. The government says that the number of outstanding legacy cases and the number of asylum seekers in hotels is not directly comparable.

Politicians must be clear when making claims about asylum seekers, using government data. If figures are quoted, it should be clear what these refer to, to minimise the risk of the public being inadvertently misled. If a politician is made aware that a claim they made caused confusion, they should take steps to clarify what they meant.

The “legacy backlog” has fallen

Mr Chalk was referring to the decrease in the “legacy backlog”—which the government defines as outstanding asylum applications made before 28 June 2022, when sections of the Nationality and Borders Act came into force.

The Home Office website refers to the government having a target to “clear the backlog of legacy asylum claims” by the end of 2023.

We’ve written about claims made about the backlog in asylum cases by government ministers a number of times over recent months.

The Home Office has previously used the 17,000 figure to refer to the fall in “legacy backlog” cases between December 2022 and May 2023. According to ad-hoc data published by the department, the number of “legacy backlog” cases stood at 92,327 on 30 November 2022—shortly before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a five-point plan to tackle the asylum backlog in December 2022—before falling to 74,410 by 28 May 2023. That’s a decrease of 17,917.

More recent Home Office figures show that between 28 May and 30 July the number of “legacy backlog” cases decreased by a further 12,253, meaning since December 2022 the number of outstanding “legacy backlog” cases has reduced by around 30,000.

The overall number of outstanding asylum applications has increased by around 5,500 over the same period. This is because the number of outstanding “flow” applications (those made after 28 June 2022) has increased by 35,657 since December 2022, outstripping the decrease in “legacy backlog” applications.

The number of asylum seekers in hotels has increased

While the “legacy backlog” has decreased, this is not the same as the “backlog” of asylum seekers in hotels, which the GB News presenter referred to in her question.

According to the government, at the end of 2022 there were 45,775 asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the UK.

Ad-hoc data published by the government shows that as of 30 June 2023, there were 50,546 asylum seekers being housed in hotels—an increase of 4,771 since December 2022.

In June, the government said that it would move 5,000 asylum seekers to alternative accommodations—including vessels and former military sites—in order to “slash the number of hotels being used for asylum seekers”.

Image courtesy of David Woolfall