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Migrant Workers

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, Director General for ONS, to Lord Taylor of Warwick, dated October 2013.

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how the proportion of European Union migrants to the United Kingdom who have never worked is calculated. (HL2924)

ONS has not calculated an official estimate of the proportion of European Union migrants to the United Kingdom who have never worked.

If the statistic in question refers to the percentage of EU migrant jobseekers that have never worked in their country of residence, then this estimate was taken from figure 3.10 of the EU Commission report: ‘A fact finding analysis on the impact on the Member States' social security systems of the entitlements of non-active intra-EU migrants to special non-contributory cash benefits and healthcare granted on the basis of residence’. A link to this report is included below:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=1980&further News=yes

The source of the information on EU migrant jobseekers comes from the Labour Force Survey of each Member State, the results for which are made available by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. As cited in the report, the estimate is calculated by the author(s) of the report using an approach that is not based upon any official ONS methodology.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL2924; 748 cc262-3WA

Session

2013-14

Subjects

Employment EU nationals

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk