Figure 13: CID case records of decisions to grant or refuse limited leave to remain in
relevant nationality categories (2006-2010).
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
140
120
100
GRANTED
80
60
40
20
0
20
40
60
80
100
Officially stateless
Unspecified nationality
Article 1 1954 Convention
Nationality currently unknown
120
140
REFUSED
Source: Management information request CPO-11-1088 received 16 August 2011 from UKBA
performance services team. Please note the figures quoted are not provided under National
Statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information and are
therefore provisional and subject to change.
Figure 14 sets out the data in respect of grants or refusals of indefinite leave to remain.86
The numbers are significantly lower than those granted limited leave to remain. Indeed they
are over three times lower than the numbers of decisions on applications for limited leave to
remain. The majority of these cases arise from the nationality categories “Stateless – Article
1 1954 Convention” (113 cases) and “Unspecified Nationality” (115 cases) over the five-year
period. Almost double the number of cases in the “Stateless – Article 1 1954 Convention” and
“Unspecified nationality” categories are granted than refused, with a particularly significant
increase of this pattern in 2010 with a grant to refusal ratio of 4:1. The “Officially stateless”
category again remains almost redundant.
Analysing this data is difficult because of missing information. For example, neither the basis
upon which the application was made or granted is provided nor whether the applicant had
pre-existing leave to enter or remain at the time of the application. One possible explanation
for the increase in the number of grants of leave to remain to stateless persons over the period
under scrutiny could be the operation of the Case Resolution Directorate. It aimed to resolve
the backlog of cases of asylum claims that had been made before March 2007 by July 2011
and is likely to have granted leave to enter or remain a significant number of stateless persons
against whom it was not possible to enforce removal.87 Indeed this analysis is also supported
by the increase in the number of travel documents issued under the 1954 Convention during
the same period.88
46
86
Ibid., except relating to “indefinite leave to remain”.
87
Resolved in this context means either where leave to enter or remain has been granted or where it
is established that the applicant has been removed.
88
See Figure 18.
Mapping statelessness