§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the population of ethnic Chinese (a) living in the 86W United Kingdom and (b) accepted for permanent settlement in the United Kingdom.
§ Sir George YoungThere are no firm figures to show what proportion of the residents of Britain, shown in the 1971 census as having been born in a given overseas country, are in fact of Chinese ethnic origin. Further, groups of persons of Chinese ethnic origin have been established in this country for some considerable time and there will be a number of their descendants who have been born in Britain. The best estimate that can be made from the available information suggests that there may be something like 100,000 people currently resident in this country who are of Chinese ethnic origin, including persons of partly Chinese origin.
The lack of information about ethnicity applies also to immigration statistics. The numbers of persons accepted for settlement analysed by citizenship and nationality are published annually by the Home Office in "Control and Immigration: Statistics"—(tables 3 and 4 of the issue for 1978, Cmnd. 7565).