§ Lord Boyd-Carpenterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish in the Official Report the numbers of immigrants into, and emigrants from, the United Kingdom in each year since 1945.
§ Lord GlenarthurNo consistent series of data which covers the whole of the period requested is available.
Statistics of acceptances for settlement in the United Kingdom of persons subject to immigration control are available from 1963 (the first full year in which Commonwealth citizens were subject to immigration control). Acceptances in the years 1963 to 1966 were respectively 75,160, 75, 110, 79,970 and 71,270. Figures for subsequent years are published annually in Control of Immigration: Statistics. Figures from 1967 to 1984 are given in Table 9 of the 1977 issue (Cmnd. 7160) and Table 15 of the 1984 issue (Cmnd. 9544). Corresponding figures for emigrants are not available.
Statistics of new and departing residents which differ in coverage and definition from those subject to the immigration control are available from 1964. This information comes from the International Passenger Survey, and is based on a sample of all passengers (including those with the right of abode in the United Kingdom, such as British citizens) arriving in or leaving the United Kingdom. A new resident ("immigrant") is defined as a person who has resided abroad for a year or more and who states the intention to stay in the United Kingdom for a year or more: a departing resident (or "emigrant") is defined conversely. These definitions thus include students and others permitted to stay in the United Kingdom for a year or more without settlement. Information for the years 1964 to 1983 was published in Table 2 1 of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys publication International Migration (series MN numbers 1 and 10): the corresponding information for 1984 was published in OPCS Monitor MN85/3.