Through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, the Government is spending over £10m over three years on the projects that provide skills training for young people in the Western Balkans. This includes the "21st Century Schools" project which delivers digital skills, critical thinking and problem solving training for up to 1 million young people across all six Western Balkan countries to provide them with better opportunities for employment in the region in the future.

In North Macedonia, one project provides training to young people in digital skills and another is providing skills training in the textiles and construction industries. Another project in Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina delivers journalism training and internships in media outlets to young people.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has not had recent discussions with the governments of Australia and New Zealand on such a matter.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Dear Lord Pendry,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate has been made of the number of UK citizens who have emigrated to reside in (1) Australia, and (2) New Zealand, in each of the last three years (HL7697).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes statistics based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS), giving estimates of the numbers of people emigrating from the UK and detailing the country of next residence[i]. Table 1 shows the number of people the ONS estimates emigrated to Australia and New Zealand in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the most recent years for which data is available. Estimates for 2019 are due to be published in November 2020.

Table 1: UK Citizens emigrating to Australia and New Zealand in thousands

Source: ONS IPS Table 4.01, Citizenship group by sex, age and country of last or next residence

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[i]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/ipscitizenshipgroupbysexbyagebycountryoflastornextresidence

These reports are concerning and we continue to monitor allegations of harassment of Uyghurs outside of China. We regularly raise our concerns about the treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang directly with the Chinese Government and at the UN.