HC Deb 01 July 1980 vol 987 c497W
Mr. J. Enoch Powell

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will ask the international passenger survey to estimate, by way of sampling, how many persons in a convenient period who were born neither in the United Kingdom nor the Irish Republic enter the United Kingdom on Irish passports.

Sir George Young

The citizenship of all persons interviewed in the international passenger survey (IPS) is recorded, but only those classified as migrants are asked for details of birthplace. According to IPS estimates, the number of immigrants to the United Kingdom during the period 1975–79 who were born outside the British Isles and were travelling on an Irish passport was about 400; this estimate is subject to a sizeable sampling error. The survey does not cover movement on the direct routes between the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic.