A report of the findings and recommendations
was presented to the Government in late 2019.
UNHCR would like to thank the Home Office for
the positive collaboration on this audit.
Since the introduction of the SDP in 2013 and up
to the end of 2019, there have been 161 grants of
leave to remain on initial decisions.9 This report
reviews 36 decisions (both grants and refusals) by
the Home Office under the SDP. Home Office case
file reference numbers have been removed from
this report for the purposes of data protection.
This report aims to assess the quality of
decision making in these cases and makes
key recommendations seen as crucial for the
strengthening and transparency of the SDP.
Recommendations are listed
throughout the report and
include the following:
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•
Comprehensive revision and
development of training for decisionmakers working in the SDP
•
Amendments to the Immigration
Rules and policy guidance
concerning statelessness
•
Introduction of a right of appeal on
decisions on
statelessness leave
•
Introduction of legal aid for
applications for
statelessness leave
•
Publication of statistics on
applications and decisions made
under the SDP
•
Development of the quality
assurance framework for the
monitoring of the quality of
statelessness leave decisions
This figure was provided by the Home Office and is revised down from 2018
because the previous annual figure combined grants of statelessness leave
from both initial decisions and subsequent grants made after the initial period of
leave had expired.
Image © UNHCR/Greg Constantine
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