§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 29 March,Official Report, column 612, if he will make it his policy to collect centrally statistics by country on the number of visitors to the United Kingdom who overstay.
§ Mr. Charles WardleSuch statistics could be collected only if there were comprehensive records of all arrivals and departures of non-European Economic Area nationals, of whom about 6.5 million are visitors to the United Kingdom each year. Maintaining such a database would not be cost-effective.