I tend to agree with the main idea, that what we observe is an effort to reorganize the applications processing. Regardless of other circumstances (new law, forms, etc.) there are several ways to do it. There's one where the queue stays the same (first in, first out), just gets processed faster with more staff. In another the second queue is created for the new apps coming in, where the service standard is met "as originally advertised" (i.e., if your app is straightforward and well doc'ed, we'll try to make it a same-day decision), while the original queue is separated and processed by another sub-group until it's over. There are pro and con arguments (logical, psychological and other) for either approach. It starts looking like WPUK has taken on the second - let's keep watching it; perhaps the trend will clearly emerge or change into another one.
There was a criminal case in the U.S. a couple of years ago, where an INS supervisor in their California processing center
physically eliminated the backlog by shredding about 75,000 cases along with original documents submitted. I say, any approach is better than that