We will publish information on the number of claims submitted, number of claims paid and the overall amount paid out by the scheme in due course as part of our regular reporting to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

The Home Office has put in place a comprehensive vulnerability strategy to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme is accessible for all, including children in care.
A user group of external stakeholders who represent the needs of vulnerable individuals has been established to work with the Home Office to understand relevant risks and issues and to ensure the right support arrangements are in place for applicants. We are also engaging with relevant stakeholders such as the Department for Education, Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Children’s Services to assess the needs of this group and ensure they are met.
a) The Department for Education (DfE) and Home Office have agreed that local authorities in England will need to ensure that applications for the scheme are made on behalf of all looked after children who are EU citizens and for whom they have parental responsibility.

For children accommodated by the local authority under section 20 of the Children Act 1989: Local authorities will raise awareness of the Settlement Scheme to those with parental responsibility for eligible child(ren), provide practical support where needed, or signpost to relevant community support where this is deemed more appropriate.

This process has also been agreed for children in care in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
b) The Home Office has announced grant funding of up to £9 million for voluntary and community sector organisation to support vulnerable EU citizens who might need additional help when applying for the Settlement Scheme.
Specific guidance and resources for local authorities and community leaders is being produced to inform vulnerable groups about the application process and the need to apply.

The Home Office recognises the importance of good data quality to support its decision making and we are continuing to work to improve and assure both our historic and present data quality.

We are in the process of deploying a new immigration data platform and digital casework applications to each area of the immigration system, and we are improving the accuracy and completeness of records held on immigration databases through user training and rigorous quality assurance.

We have created a Chief Caseworker Unit within UK Visas and Immigration and a ‘safety valve’ mechanism within Immigration Enforcement to bolster caseworking expertise and ensure that caseworkers have a clear escalation route where they have a concern or require specialist guidance. This is in addition to a number of new working process trials to help reduce the number of refusal decisions overturned at appeal. In addition, we are increasing face to face engagement between staff and individuals in both immigration reporting centres and immigration removal centres to ensure that vulnerability issues are identified and managed at the earliest opportunity

​The Foreign and Commonwealth Office regularly engages with the Home Office regarding the impact of the UK's immigration policy on the UK's relationship with Iraq. The UK remains committed to strengthening the UK-Iraq bilateral partnership.

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

That is a matter for the Home Office, but I am assured that the Home Office believes that the system can deliver what we need for the country.

DWP do not hold information regarding the numbers of asylum seekers who have been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. However, when the Home Office grant the application for indefinite leave they forward the personal details to NINo operations and a NINo is allocated within 48 hours.

From 15 January 2018 this process is applicable to the principle family member and any adult dependants aged 16 or over in the refugees family. With the NINo being allocated within 48 hours this facilitates the smooth transition from asylum support to mainstream benefits.

An awful lot of migrants who come here do not come as asylum seekers, and that is quite a wide issue. With regard to students, the net migration figures are assessed and published by the Office for National Statistics, which is entirely independent of Government, and those figures are based on the UN definition of a migrant, which is somebody who is in the country for 12 months or more.

International students are included in net migration statistics that are produced by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). In line with the internationally agreed UN definition, these statistics define a migrant as someone changing their normal place of residence for more than a year. Students are therefore included in the same way as other migrants. Other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia also include students in their net migration figures. Like other migrants, students who stay for longer than 12 months have an impact on communities, infrastructure and services while they are here, so it is right that they are included in the net migration count.

The data can be found in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook charts and tables – March 2016, under Chapter 5, Chart 5.6: Past and projected net migration to the UK, available here: http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-march-2016/

The Treasury has not made any formal assessment of the effect of immigration on GDP in the next 10 years.

Treasury Ministers have regular discussions with Ministers from other departments on a range of different policies as part of collective decision making.

Analysis undertaken by the independent Migration Advisory Committee in 2012 shows that higher levels of net migration will, all else equal, increase the growth rate of the potential labour supply and therefore the rate of growth of overall GDP.

As noted in the 2012 report by the Migration Advisory Committee the empirical literature suggests that the impact of migration on productivity may be mixed and heavily dependent on the type of migrant coming to the UK. Migrants may increase productivity either through a simple ‘batting average’ effect if they work in higher productivity roles relative to the average for non-migrants, or through increasing the productivity of UK workers through greater specialisation and knowledge transfer.

Those looking to work in the UK use Tiers 2 and 5 of the Points Based System route. A list of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) assigned by sponsors, by business
sector, has been placed in the Library of the House. This list provides details of the certificates that have been assigned and will not necessarily have leave granted in conjunction with that CoS.

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

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

Letter from Jil Matheson, dated February 2014:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to respond to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many Chinese nationals are currently residing and working in the UK. [186731]

The latest estimates that are available for the number of Chinese nationals resident and in employment in the UK are both derived from Annual Population Survey (APS) data for the 12 month period, January to December 2012.

The estimated number of Chinese nationals resident in households in the UK was 87,000, with a corresponding margin of error of +/-13,000. The margin of error refers to the 95 percent confidence interval and is a measure of the uncertainty associated with making inferences from, a sample.

The estimated number of Chinese nationals in employment in the UK was 28,000.

Much of the difference between the number of Chinese nationals resident in the UK and in employment in the UK can be accounted for by Chinese nationals resident in the UK who are students in full-time education and who are not economically active.

The APS is the Labour Force Survey (LFS) plus various sample boosts. It is a household survey and so does not include people living in most types of communal establishment.