The immigration service in Scotland is not fit for purpose and could take up to 18 months to turn around, Phil Taylor, its director, admitted last night.

Mr Taylor, in London to brief Scottish MPs, was determined that structural problems would be overcome in what is now a more decentralised service north of the border.

The head of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) in Scotland made clear he and his staff would get to grips with making sure that failed asylum seekers returned to their homelands. This would mean "more effective enforcement" of the rules by using a stricter application.

Mr Taylor emphasised that he would "love to do away" with the controversial policy of dawn raids as it was unpleasant for all involved, but stressed the policy would continue as a measure of last resort until someone came up with an effective alternative.

Last September, an attempt was made to encourage people who had exhausted the appeals process to present themselves for deportation. Of 140 people in 40 families approached to do this, only one person turned up.

Last May, Home Secretary John Reid - in the light of the foreign prisoner deportation fiasco - famously declared that the government's immigration service was "not fit for purpose". Nine months on, The Herald asked Mr Taylor if the immigration service in Scotland was now fit for purpose. He replied: "I'm pretty confident it will be within 12 to 18 months," adding it needed "a better restructuring".

It was pointed out how, compared to the rest of the UK, a higher proportion of families seeking asylum who were dispersed to Scotland exhausted the appeals process and refused to return to their home countries voluntarily.

This was partly put because of the fact that the families, who are almost entirely housed in Glasgow, are regarded more keenly as part of the community north of the border, particularly if they have children at local schools.

"There's a more positive attitude in Scotland regarding people going through the asylum process," said Mr Taylor.

Scotland has one of the largest concentrations of asylum-seeking families in the UK. There are just under 2000, made up of around 4500 individuals, 75% of whom have exhausted the asylum appeals process.

In Scotland, the IND has around 60 officers, mostly based in Glasgow. Since November, cases in Scotland have been decided here rather than at the IND's head office in Croydon near London.

Last autumn, during a visit to Scotland, Liam Byrne, Immigration Minister, announced the change with the creation of two teams in Glasgow aimed at speeding up the process, with decisions reached within six months.

Mr Taylor re-emphasised the point made by Mr Byrne that the IND would "bend over backwards" to do all it could to help those failed asylum seekers who were now living in Britain illegally to return home voluntarily, to explain to them the procedures so that they would fully understand the reasons for their failed applications which, the authorities hoped, would lead to fewer forced removals.

Ian Davidson, the Labour MP for Glasgow South West, who has been pressing for a quicker asylum process, said the IND in Scotland was now "getting its act together". He added: "It's getting more competent. Before, the impression was that the whole thing was a shambles, now they are getting things together."