Report highlights problems facing young asylum seekers

The National Audit Office today published its report into the model, introduced in 2006, under which a single immigration official manages an application from start to finish.

Although the report revealed the new model had led to better organisation in the UK Borders Agency it was also critical of an increasing backlog of cases and inconsitent initial assessments.

It revealed that full screening interviews are not happening in more than a quarter of cases, resulting in the possibility of key information being overlooked.

The findings also highlight the increase in the backlog of decisions on cases, which has more than doubled since the second quarter of 2007 to 8,700 in the second quarter of 2008.

Lisa Nandy, chair of the Refugee Children's Consortium, said she welcomed the report. "A more efficient system is a more humane system," she said.

"Although the introduction of the new asylum model has meant the system has improved there is a lot of progress that still needs to be made. More support in an interview can be particularly pertinent to children so they can fully understand the implications of the information they are giving. Children often don't disclose the worst that has happened to them and they need legal support to do this."