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Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Answer

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate the Government has made of the change in levels of immigration by travellers from the Republic of Ireland into the UK over the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [219877] Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mrs. Caroline Spelman, dated 8 March 2005: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question regarding the levels of immigration by travellers from the Republic of Ireland into the UK over the last five years. (219877) The phrase `travellers from the Republic of Ireland' has been taken to refer to all those migrating from the Republic to the United Kingdom, not specifically to Irish Travellers who constitute a subgroup of the populations of both the Republic of Ireland and the UK. The attached table shows the estimates of total migration between the two countries from 1999 to 2003, the latter of which is the most recent year for which estimates are available. The inflow estimates refer to migrants moving from the Republic of Ireland to the UK; the outflow estimates refer to those moving in the opposite direction; and the balance shows the net effect of these flows on the population of the UK. A migrant is defined as someone who changes his or her country of usual residence for a period of at least a year, so that the country of destination effectively becomes the country of usual residence. We are unable to provide estimates for Irish Travellers as a population subgroup as we have no means of identifying them in the data sources used to make international migration estimates. International migration between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland United Kingdom--Thousand _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Time series 1999 to 2003 Inflow Outflow Balance 1999 8.3 19.0 -10.7 2000 5.8 16.0 -10.2 2001 5.2 14.3 -9.1 2002 5.1 13.1 -8.1 2003 5.0 13.1 -8.1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Source: Estimates of migration between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are made using data primarily from the Irish Quarterly National Household Survey. They are agreed between the Irish Central Statistics Office and ONS.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

431 c1644-5W;431 c1640-1W; 219877

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Immigration Migration Republic of Ireland Travellers

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk