HC Deb 05 July 2001 vol 371 c250W
Mr. Soames

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the quality of statistics available to him on immigration and asylum. [2093]

Angela Eagle

Statistics on immigration and asylum are based on administrative sources and their quality is benefiting from the improvements and developments that have been made to the administrative systems over the past year. Further improvements in quality and scope are expected. The data produced monthly shortly after the end of the reference period are subject to quality improvement and revision prior to publication in biennial and annual statistical publications to take account of the delayed reporting of data and data cleansing work.

Immigration and asylum statistics are published in a Command Paper and a number of regular statistical bulletins covering general immigration, asylum, and citizenship. All these publications form part of the National Statistics and as such are produced to professional standards set out in a Code of Practice. The formal assessment of data quality is incorporated in the cycle of reviews under the National Statistics Work Programme.