Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the potential number of short-term EU migrants who are expected to enter the UK to live and work in each of the next five years.

It has been the practice of this Government not to make such forecasts. There are numerous different factors that can affect migration flows. Projections of UK’s population are published by the independent Office for National Statistics. http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections

As projections, these do not take account of the potential impact of Government policies or economic conditions. ONS produce estimates of short term migration for England and Wales https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/shorttermmigrationestimatesforenglandandwalesmid2014estimates

The majority of those coming as ‘short term migrants’ were for the reason “other” (which includes activities such as: holidays and travelling; visiting family and friends; and working holidays).