§ Lord Tebbitasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish the methodology and calculations which led the Home Office to conclude that Britain's foreign born population pays 10 per cent more than it receives from government, as reported in the Daily Telegraph of Tuesday 23 January; and how this compares with the generality of the population. [HL616]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe figures quoted in theDaily Telegraph are taken from the recently published Home Office study Migration: An economic and social analysis. These figures represent an initial estimate of the fiscal contribution that migrants make to the economy—that is the value of the taxes they pay over and above what they consume in benefits and other public services. However, as noted in the Home Office study, there are a wide range of possible assumptions that affect estimates of the contributions of both migrants and the UK-born population. Work is under way to refine these assumptions and it is the intention to publish the findings from this analysis, which will include details of the methodology used and the calculations.