HC Deb 12 February 2002 vol 380 cc297-8W
Mr. Andrew Turner

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of those known to have settled in the United Kingdom in the last 10 years is fluent in the English language. [34674]

Angela Eagle

[holding answer 8 February 2002]: There are no recent, reliable figures about the number of people who have settled in the United Kingdom within the last 10 years who are fluent in English. We do not routinely ask people applying for settlement about their linguistic ability.

In 2002, some 125,090 people were accepted for settlement. Some of them will have English as their first language and others will have developed a degree of fluency by virtue of the time they have spent here before becoming eligible for settlement.