§ 28. Mr. Deedesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the light of the latest returns on Common- 568 wealth immigrants, what further proposals he has for control.
§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. James Callaghan)The recent changes made in the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968, are proving effective and I have no further changes to propose at present.
§ Mr. DeedesI merely asked the Question in order to find out whether the Home Secretary has formed any idea of the ratio in respect of voucher holders now coming in to prospective dependants, and when the level of dependants entering, still running at about 50,000 a year, may be expected to taper off?
§ Mr. CallaghanI think that it is in the proportion of ten dependants to one voucher holder. As the House knows, the number of dependants is not strictly related, because a recent survey shows that a great number of dependants still arriving are those whose original breadwinner came before the 1962 Act, and certainly before the number of vouchers was reduced in 1965. As to whether the numbers are expected to taper off, it is too early to make deductions. As far as one can see, the number of dependants has reached a plateau at the moment, and I would expect to see it falling away some time next year.
§ Mr. HoggI noticed that the figures for voucher holders for August show a rather significant rise. Is that purely seasonal or does the right hon. Gentleman have some other explanation?
§ Mr. CallaghanThere is no significance in that. If one takes the whole of the first eight months of this year, the number of voucher holders was 3,291 against 3,214 in the first eight months of last year. That figure is pretty stationary. The number of dependants is lower this year than last year. I would not want to try to draw deductions from that.