Immigration: EU Nationals

(asked on 7th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Office of National Statistics to estimate the number of eligible EU nationals who have not yet submitted an application to the EU Settlement Scheme.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 10th June 2021

Published EUSS figures refer specifically to applications made to the EU Settlement Scheme and cannot be directly compared with estimates of the resident population of EU/EEA nationals in the UK.

The published figures include non-EEA family members, Irish nationals, and eligible EEA citizens not resident in the UK, none of whom are usually included in estimates of the resident EU population.

Furthermore, the population estimates do not take account of people’s migration intentions and will include people who have come to the UK for a range of purposes, including some who have no intention to settle in the UK.

The Office for National Statistics published a further explaining note discussing the strengths and limitations of UK Population Estimates

Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

ONS are currently transforming their population and migration statistics to put administrative data at the core of what they do. The latest information on their work programme and longer term plans to transform migration and population statistics was published on 16th April 2021.

Population and migration statistics system transformation – overview - Office for National Statistics

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