Government departments and agencies are hiding key data on the economic contribution of immigrants by nationality. Conservative MP Neil O’Brien (yes, I know, we haven’t forgiven him for going after sceptics during lockdown, but stay with me) writes about the problem in the Times.
The Government collects fabulously detailed statistics on many things. We know that the average Brit drinks about 542 cups of tea a year. We know how many people have been struck by lightning since 1852.
We know what proportion of buses in Rutland run on time. We know that while the Beatles sang that there were “four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire”, there were in fact 4,817 potholes there in 2022. But if you want to get hold of statistics about migration, it’s surprisingly difficult to get reliable data.
Start with the basics. How many people live in Britain? The official answer has changed radically in only a few months. Alongside the budget in March, the Office for Budget Responsibility announced that by the end of its five-year forecast the population would be a million higher than its last forecast, only three months ago. It stated: “About two thirds of this increase is due to a higher estimate of the current U.K. population.”
Paul Johnson, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “This is astonishing when you think about it. We now think the U.K.’s population next year will be more than one million higher than we expected less than three years ago. Driven by much higher net immigration.” …
And that’s just the basics of how many people are here. Go a level deeper and there are no data at all. How many people of different nationalities are in the country? Amazingly, we don’t know. The ONS used to publish an annual breakdown of our population by nationality. But that has been discontinued. When I asked the ONS when the breakdown might resume, it said it was unable to give a date. The organisation is working on it and will provide a progress update some time this year.
What about the economic effects of different types of migration from different places? That question is becoming harder to answer because officials have stopped publishing the data we need to have a sensible conversation about it.
HM Revenue & Customs used to publish annual data on how much tax people of different nationalities paid. But it recently confirmed to me that it has stopped publishing it. Similarly, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) used to publish data on welfare claims by nationality. The DWP published figures every year for a decade or more but it, too, has decided to stop publishing this.
Many EU countries, among them Denmark, Germany and Austria, produce sophisticated analysis of the fiscal contribution of migrants who come on different types of visa, from different places. They use this to ensure they are getting the most beneficial types of migration. We should do the same.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Watch Migration Watch’s Alp Mehmet discuss the scandal of the hidden immigration data with Nigel Farage on GB News.
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