from what I gather, they are roughly doing month in a month. But of course that can vary depending on the number of applications in that particular month and the number of staff that are processing those applications. According to the last governmental measures the number of civil servants has been reduced by early retirement, career breaks and unpaid leaves that are given to staff. As well as any staff member going on unpaid term time for the summer is not substituted by anyone else due to cutbacks. Therefore, the processing may slow down a bit.
If they are processing September 2007 at the moment and did not need any additional documents from your friend, they wouldn't send him anything and just process his application further. He should hear from them with the decision. While processing, an interdepartamental report is requested, which can take around 3 months to receive, however, the time may vary. just make sure to keep your permission up to date as they cannot grant anyone LTR whose permission expired, or who moved address and never told them
Good luck.
