Redhotcurry - News. Government underestimates the number of foreign workers.

The Government has twice revised its figure for the increase in the number of foreign nationals working in the UK since 1997 from 800,000 to 1.1 million - an extra 300,000. Today, the figure was further revised to to 1.5m not the revised figure of 1.1m as published the night before (October 29th). In a letter to Shadow Pensions Secretary, Chris Grayling MP, the Work & Pensions Secretary, Peter Hain, apologised for issuing incorrect figures.

Commenting, Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green, said: “The Government’s figures are all over the place. They cannot get to the root of the population crisis however, because they simply don’t know who is entering the country, where they come from and who is leaving. This is why it is important to have a dedicated Border Police Force which will not only secure our borders but also detect, pursue and remove illegal over-stayers.

“It also reinforces our call for an explicit annual limit on non-EU immigration coming to the country. Without this, the Government’s points system is pointless.”

Shadow Work & Pensions Minister, Chris Grayling, added; “This is an extraordinary development. The fact that the Government did not know the true number of overseas workers who have come to the UK in the past ten years is profoundly worrying, and confirms fears that Ministers have simply lost control of our systems for migrant workers. It really does call into question the competence of Ministers and of the Government as a whole.”

Commenting on the further revision from 1.1 million to 1.5 million, Chris Grayling, said: “This situation just gets worse; it’s clear we simply can’t trust the figures or statements put out by the Government on migrant workers in the UK. Ministers need to carry out an urgent review of how they handle this data and need to clear up once and for all how many people come to work in Britain.”

In a letter from Karen Dunnell, a National Statistician who was asked to reply to Mr Grayling's request to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about how many people have entered the UK in the last 10 years, she said

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 18 July 2007:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about the number of people who entered the UK in the last ten years and who are in employment. (150245)

For the three month period ending March 2007 there were 1.5 million overseas born people in employment who had entered the UK in the last ten years. This figure includes those who were children when they arrived.

When interpreting this figure, it is important to bear in mind that the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is not designed to cover everyone who is present in the UK. The survey may undercount the numbers of people who were born overseas for the following reasons :-

The LFS sample covers people living in private households, those in National Health Service (NHS) accommodation, and students living in halls of residence who have a UK-resident parent. Students living in halls of residence who do not have a UK-resident parent are not covered by the sample.

The LFS does not cover people living in other types of communal establishment (such as hostels, hotels, boarding houses, or mobile home sites).

Individuals living at sampled addresses are generally included in the survey only if they regard the address as their main residence. Those who have been living at the address for less than six months are not eligible to take part in the survey.

The survey results are weighted to estimates of the ‘usually resident’ UK population living in private households, NHS accommodation and student halls of residence. The population figures cover long-term international migrants (people who change their country of usual residence for 12 months or more). They do not include people moving to the UK for less than 12 months, nor do they exclude from the usually resident population people moving out of the UK for less than 12 months.

The LFS estimates at this detailed level are only consistent with the UK population estimates published in February and March 2003 and they do not incorporate the more recent population estimates that are used in the headline labour market series.

Estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.

Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, added:““It is not good enough for the Home Secretary to apologise. The Government should be open about telling the truth before they are pressurised into it. Immigration policy has been out of control for a decade and if you can’t count migration, you certainly can’t control it.”

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